Unpublished Disposition, 930 F.2d 30 (9th Cir. 1991)

MEMORANDUM^** 

Rosalba Mendoza-Garcia challenges the district court's imposition of a twenty-four month custodial sentence for her conviction in connection with the illegal transportation of illegal aliens. We affirm.

* Mendoza pled guilty to the first count of a two-count indictment in return for the government's dismissal of the second count. The presentence report calculated an applicable Guideline range of four-to-ten months, but the probation officer recommended an upward departure to twenty-four months with an additional three years of supervised release. The district court accepted the probation officer's recommendation with the following observations:

The court considers the upward departure to be appropriate in this case because the Guidelines do not take into consideration high-speed chases with the attendant hazards to the defendant, to the passengers in the defendant's car and to the traveling public, and to the property of the citizens of the country that are put at risk with such conduct.

Therefore, the court ... follows the recommendation of the probation department which is to impose a sentence of twenty-four months custody on the defendant plus three years supervised release....

II

In United States v. Ramirez-De Rosas, 873 F.2d 1177 (9th Cir. 1989), this court affirmed the imposition of a thirty-month sentence, even though the applicable Guideline range was zero-to-four months, where the defendant, who had been convicted of the illegal transportation of illegal aliens, had engaged in a reckless high-speed chase. There, the defendant had obtained speeds of up to 95 miles per hour in a chase that covered thirty miles. Here, Mendoza obtained speeds of up to 115 miles per hour in a chase that covered 3.8 miles. As described by the presentence report, Mendoza

utilized all available lanes on the freeway and attempted to bail out on two occasions, making various lane changes in such a sudden manner that the rear end of the vehicle fishtailed. The chase terminated when the defendant lost control of the vehicle and slid into the cyclone fence.

If a twenty-six-month upward departure was reasonable on the facts in Ramirez-De Rosas, we cannot conclude that a fourteen-month upward departure was unreasonable on the facts in this case. Moreover, as the government points out, Mendoza's sentence "is less than half of the statutory maximum of five years." Red Br. at 11. In short, we find no abuse of discretion.

AFFIRMED.