United States v. Gonzalez-Barbosa

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The First Circuit affirmed Defendant's sentence of ninety-seven months' imprisonment, holding that the district court did not err in calculating Defendant's criminal history category under the sentencing guidelines and that the sentence was procedurally reasonable.Defendant pled guilty to violations of 21 U.S.C. 846 and other crimes. On appeal, Defendant argued that the district court committed procedural error when it counted a prior conviction in calculating his criminal history score because the prior conviction was "relevant conduct," that his sentence was procedurally unreasonable because it was disparately higher than the sentences of his co-defendants, and that the district court did not adequately state on the record why it chose to sentence him above the seventy-two months recommended by the plea agreement. The First Circuit disagreed, holding (1) Defendant's prior conviction was correctly counted as a prior sentence; (2) the district court adequately explained its reasoning for the sentence in open court; and (3) Defendant's disparity challenge was unavailing. View "United States v. Gonzalez-Barbosa" on Justia Law