United States v. Calderon-Zayas, No. 22-1353 (1st Cir. 2024)
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The defendant, Victor J. Calderon-Zayas, was convicted of aiding and abetting another person to illegally possess a machine gun, a violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 922(o). This conviction occurred while Calderon-Zayas was on supervised release for a previous conviction related to drug distribution. The machine gun in question was a modified pistol, which the court deemed more dangerous than an average machine gun. Calderon-Zayas was sentenced to a sixty-month sentence, which was above the guidelines range, and an additional eighteen-month sentence for violating the terms of his supervised release.
The case was first heard in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, where Calderon-Zayas pled guilty to the charges. He challenged the length of his sentence, arguing that the court overemphasized the aggravating factors and overlooked the mitigating factors. He also argued that the court improperly relied on the dangerous nature of the firearm involved as a basis for the upward variance. As for the revocation sentence, he argued that the court erred by not considering the § 922(o) sentence when crafting the punishment for the supervised release violation.
The case was then appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The appellate court found no error in the lower court's decision and affirmed both the § 922(o) and revocation sentences. The court held that the sentencing court properly balanced the § 3553(a) factors and that the dangerousness of the modified pistol was a valid consideration for an upward variance in the sentence. The court also found that the consecutive revocation sentence was within the court's discretion and did not require consideration of the § 922(o) sentence.
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