United States v. Rivera-Gonzalez, No. 14-1402 (1st Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and aiding and abetting possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime. The parties agreed to a total recommended sentence of sixty to seventy-two months’ imprisonment. After a sentencing hearing, the district court imposed a total sentence of 366 months’ imprisonment. Defendant appealed, arguing, inter alia, that the sentence was substantively unreasonable due to its length. The First Circuit vacated Defendant’s sentence and remanded, holding that because the varied upward from the guidelines range by such a great extent and the district court failed to prove an adequate explanation for the sentence, the district court’s imposition of the sentence was obvious error.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on January 14, 2016.
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