United States v. Valdez, No. 13-1811 (7th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this Case
Valdez pled guilty to possessing heroin with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1) and admitted responsibility for 700 grams of heroin. Given the amount of heroin he acknowledged, he faced a statutory minimum of five years in prison and a statutory maximum of 40 years, 21 U.S.C. 841(b)(1)(B)(i). In applying the Sentencing Guidelines, the district court held him accountable for more than three kilograms and imposed a within-guidelines sentence of 140 months in prison. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that the drug quantity finding violated his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights, that the finding was based on unreliable evidence, and that the court failed to address an argument he made in mitigation against undue reliance on drug quantity.
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.