United States v. Barela, No. 14-2103 (10th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseJuan Lorenzo Barela, Jr. pled guilty to one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. The district court imposed a controlling sentence of 210 months’ imprisonment, stemming in part from the district court’s imposition of a five-level enhancement based on its finding that Barela distributed child pornography “for the receipt, or expectation of receipt, of a thing of value.” The district court also imposed special conditions on Barela’s supervised release, including a restriction on possession of materials depicting or describing “sexually explicit conduct.” On appeal, Barela argued the district court’s application of the section 2G2.2(b)(3)(B) Sentencing Guideline enhancement was at odds with Tenth Circuit precedent in "United States v. Geiner," (498 F.3d 1104 (2007)), which held the enhancement required the government to prove something more than that the defendant distributed child pornography through a peer-to-peer network. Barela also generally challenged the special conditions of his supervised release based on the district court’s failure to provide reasons for their imposition. Barela specifically challenged the condition prohibiting him from possessing materials depicting or describing sexually explicit conduct, arguing that condition is unrelated to the sentencing factors and violated his First Amendment rights. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit agreed with Barela that "Geiner" controlled, and remanded to the district court with directions to vacate Barela’s sentence and resentence him. Based on its plain error review, the Tenth Circuit concluded Barela failed to show that either potential error justified vacating the special conditions.
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