United States v. Abrica-Sanchez, No. 15-1607 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pleaded guilty to illegal reentry after removal and subsequently appealed his sentence. The district court determined that defendant's prior conviction for domestic assault was a felony, which increased the statutory maximum sentence to ten years in prison, and resulted in an advisory guidelines range of 15 to 21 months in prison. The district court varied upwards and sentenced defendant to 48 months in prison. The court concluded that the district court did not commit clear error in sentencing defendant and the court rejected defendant's claim that the district court based its sentence on clearly erroneous facts. The court further concluded that the district court properly considered defendant's employment history as information concerning the background, character and conduct of the defendant; and defendant's sentence is substantively reasonable where the district court weighed the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors, including work history and failure to support his children, against the mitigating factors urged by defendant, as well as prior convictions. Accordingly, the court affirmed the sentence.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Beam and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Criminal Case - sentencing. District court did not err in construing prior conviction for domestic assault as a felony, increasing the maximum penalty for illegal reentry to ten years under section 1326(b)(1); district court did not clearly err in finding defendant had not supported his children for 13 years or finding a lack of employment history; lack of employment history is not a prohibited sentencing factor; district court did not abuse its discretion in granting an upward variance, appropriately taking into account section 3553(a) factors. Sentence was not substantively reasonable.
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