United States v. Gonzalez Vazquez, No. 11-30176 (9th Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction and sentence for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, arguing that the district court should have ordered the government to comply with a plea agreement for safety valve or minor participation sentencing, and that his guidelines calculation should not have been adjusted upward for a 2008 conviction for driving with a suspended license. The court concluded that the record amply supported the district court's finding of fact that no such agreement was made upon which defendant relied to his detriment. The court concluded that defendant should not have received an additional point for "driving while license suspended" where defendant was not sentenced to probation. Accordingly, the court confirmed defendant's conviction but vacated and remanded the sentence.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed a jury conviction and vacated a sentence for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, in a case in which the defendant argued that the district court should have ordered the government to comply with a plea agreement for safety-valve or minor- participant sentencing and should not have assigned a criminal history point to his prior Washington state conviction for driving with a suspended license. The panel held that the record supports the district court’s finding that no agreement was made, and concluded that there is no evidence of any promise upon which the defendant relied to his detriment. The panel held that the district court erred in treating the defendant’s suspended sentence for the prior conviction as a “sentence of probation of more than one year” under U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2(c)(1)(A), where the conditions of the defendant’s suspended incarceration did not limit or require any conduct beyond that of a law abiding individual.
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