United States v. Lopez-Hernandez, No. 11-3854 (7th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDefendant, a 27-year-old Mexican citizen, pleaded guilty to being in the U.S. after being deported, 8 U.S.C. 1326(a), and was sentenced to 71 months, the top of the 57-71 month guidelines range. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting an argument that the judge should not have taken into account 41 arrests that had not resulted in convictions without determining that defendant had actually engaged in conduct for which he was arrested. A court may not rely on the prior arrest record itself in determining a sentence, but may consider underlying conduct detailed in arrest records where there is sufficient factual basis to conclude that the conduct actually occurred. For 15 arrests there was a summary either of a petition for adjudication of wardship or of the arrest report. The defendant did not question the accuracy of any of those and did not suggest that the other 26 arrests were ungrounded. The judge was entitled to assume that the arrests considered as a whole, coupled with five convictions, gave a more accurate picture of the likelihood of recidivism than the convictions and arrest summaries alone and justified the sentence. Given defendant’s criminal record, there was no basis for a cultural-assimilation adjustment.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.