United States v. Bernardo, No. 15-50289 (9th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pleaded guilty to both bringing an unlawful alien into the United States and aiding and abetting an offense against the United States. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's application of a six-point upward adjustment to his offense level for “recklessly creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person" under USSG 2L1.1(b)(6). The court concluded that the district court did not clearly err in finding that transporting a person by strapping her inside a dashboard was neither safe nor comfortable but rather “extremely precarious” and dangerous, and that this conduct met the criteria of Application Note 5, which indicates that section 2L1.1(b)(6) applies to a “wide variety of conduct,” including but not limited to the listed examples. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Affirming a sentence for bringing an unlawful alien into the United States and aiding and abetting, the panel held that the district court did not err in determining that transporting a person by strapping her inside a compartment behind a vehicle dashboard created a substantial risk of death or serious harm, and therefore did not err in applying a six-level enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(b)(6).
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