United States v. Vigil, No. 10-4114 (10th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseDefendant-Appellant Neil Vigil was arrested after police pulled him over and found “a vast cache of counterfeit identifications” and other materials indicative of identity theft. Defendant ultimately reached a plea deal with the government. At sentencing, the district court applied a two-level enhancement under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and imposed a fine. Defendant appealed the court’s use of the enhancement and the imposition of the fine. Defendant argued that the enhancement only applied to “professional fences,” and that there was no evidence presented at trial that proved he sold any of the stolen property. Furthermore, Defendant argued that the imposition of the fine was the trial court’s abuse of discretion. The Tenth Circuit agreed with Defendant, and held that the trial court misapplied the sentencing enhancements in his case. In addition, the Court found that the record did not reflect the “district court’s consideration of the pertinent factors prior to imposing the fine.” The Court vacated Defendant’s sentence and fine, and remanded the case for further proceedings.
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