Summary
The Tenth Circuit affirmed a 41-month sentence (bottom of the advisory Guidelines range) for drug conspiracy and illegal reentry, rejecting challenges to procedural and substantive reasonableness. The court held that the district court adequately considered the § 3553(a) factors, including the defendant's personal circumstances and rehabilitation efforts, and did not commit plain error by giving greater weight to deterrence or by allegedly presuming the Guidelines were reasonable. On substantive review, the within-Guidelines sentence was presumptively reasonable, and the defendant's disagreement with the district court's weighing of mitigating factors did not establish an abuse of discretion.
Topics
Questions Presented
- Whether the district court procedurally erred by failing to meaningfully consider Pacheco's personal characteristics, family circumstances, and rehabilitation efforts under § 3553(a).
- Whether the district court procedurally erred by elevating deterrence over other § 3553(a) factors.
- Whether the district court procedurally erred by impermissibly assuming the Guidelines range was presumptively reasonable.
- Whether the sentence was substantively unreasonable because the district court gave too much weight to deterrence and insufficient weight to mitigating factors.
Holdings
- The district court did not commit procedural error. It considered the § 3553(a) factors, did not impermissibly rely on a single factor, and did not presume the Guidelines presumptively reasonable.
- The sentence was not substantively unreasonable. The district court properly weighed the § 3553(a) factors and did not abuse its discretion.
Key quotations
“I’m sorry, but I find no basis for a departure or variance. If this was a[n] original determination I would feel differently, but the law does not justify me in sentencing you below the Advisory Guideline range, although a low end would certainly be appropriate.” (at 4)
“similar to almost every Defendant I hear here, comes and leaves their family in Mexico, they have the hardship, they need support, they need money so that, to me, does not make it special.” (at 4)
“I’ve got to tell you virtually every Defendant that I’m about to sentence to prison tells me that he has since obtained religious conversion while he’s in jail, I’ve heard that before.” (at 5)
Factual background
Pacheco was convicted in 2002 of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute 154 kilograms of marijuana, sentenced to 37 months, deported, and later convicted of illegal reentry in 2016. He committed the instant offenses while on supervised release. He requested a downward variance based on his family's financial hardship, medical issues, and his rehabilitation efforts in jail.
Procedural history
Pacheco pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, possession with intent to distribute marijuana, and reentry of a removed alien. The district court sentenced him to 41 months' imprisonment, at the bottom of the advisory Guidelines range. Pacheco appealed, challenging the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his sentence.