US v. Almonte

Filing

OPINION issued by William J. Kayatta , Jr., Appellate Judge; Norman H. Stahl, Appellate Judge and David J. Barron, Appellate Judge. Unpublished. [13-2496]

Case: 13-2496

Document: 00116907227

Page: 1

Date Filed: 10/23/2015

Entry ID: 5947832

Not for Publication in West's Federal Reporter

United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit

No. 13-2496
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Appellee,
v.
BONIFACIO TORIBIO-ALMONTE, a/k/a CARLOS DE-LA-CRUZ-SANCHEZ,
Defendant, Appellant.

APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
[Hon. Jay A. García-Gregory, U.S. District Judge]

Before
Kayatta, Stahl, and Barron,
Circuit Judges.

George F. Gormley, with whom Stephen P. Super was on brief,
for appellant.
Francisco A. Besosa-Martínez, Assistant United States
Attorney, with whom Rosa Emilia Rodriguez-Velez, United States
Attorney, and Nelson Pérez-Sosa, Assistant United States Attorney,
Chief, Appellate Division, were on brief, for appellee.

October 23, 2015

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Document: 00116907227

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STAHL, Circuit Judge.

Date Filed: 10/23/2015

Entry ID: 5947832

The defendant, Bonifacio Toribio-

Almonte, after having pled guilty to participating in a drugtrafficking

conspiracy,

now

appeals

from

his

sentence.

At

sentencing, the government claimed that the defendant was a leader
or organizer of the conspiracy--a claim for which the government
finds no support in the record and accordingly declines now to
defend.

Because resolution of the government's claim appeared

central to the sentencing calculus, and yet because the record is
too unclear to engage in effective appellate review on this
question,

we

vacate

the

sentence

and

remand

the

action

for

resentencing.
I.
We

draw

the

Facts & Background
facts

from

the

uncontested

presentence

report ("PSR") and the transcript of the sentencing hearing.
United States v. Gaffney-Kessell, 772 F.3d 97, 98 (1st Cir. 2014).
On April 12, 2012, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection
marine

patrol

aircraft

detected

a

small

boat

approximately

seventeen nautical miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. The vessel,
later determined to be registered in the Dominican Republic, was
sailing in the direction of Dorado, Puerto Rico, with its lights
out and, as it turned out, carrying six people on board.

As the

aircraft approached the vessel, several bales of what appeared to
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be contraband were thrown overboard.

Entry ID: 5947832

The boat was intercepted and

its passengers were arrested, including the defendant and five
other individuals, all Dominican citizens.

Six of the jettisoned

bales were later recovered from the water and a field test yielded
positive results for the presence of cocaine and heroin.1

In

total, 146.5 kilograms of cocaine and 8.53 kilograms of heroin
were seized.
The defendant and the five others on board the vessel
were indicted on one count of conspiracy to import five kilograms
or more of cocaine and one kilogram or more of heroin into the
United States, 21 U.S.C. §§ 952(a), 960, 963, and one count of
conspiracy to possess and distribute five kilograms or more of
cocaine and one kilogram or more of heroin on board a vessel within
U.S.

customs

70506(a).2

waters,

46

U.S.C.

§§

70503(a)(1),

70504(b)(1),

The government initially offered the defendant a plea

agreement, wherein the government agreed to recommend a sentence
of 108 to 135 months, but the defendant rejected it, opting instead
to go to trial.

However, on the morning that trial was scheduled

1

Subsequent chemical testing confirmed that the substances
were in fact cocaine and heroin.
2

The indictment also charged two of the codefendants with
attempting to reenter the United States without permission after
having been deported. 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a).
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to begin, the defendant entered a guilty plea, with no plea
agreement.

The trial proceeded against four of his codefendants,

who were ultimately convicted, while the fifth also pled guilty.
The probation office calculated the defendant's base
offense level as 38, given the drug quantities at issue, and
calculated an overall adjusted offense level of 36 based on the
defendant's acceptance of responsibility.

The defendant had no

criminal history points, placing him in criminal history category
I.

A total offense level of 36 and a criminal history category of

I yielded a guidelines sentencing range of 188 to 235 months'
imprisonment.

The counts carried a mandatory minimum sentence of

120 months.
In its sentencing memorandum, the government requested
a sentence of 235 months, at the high end of the guidelines range.
In

support,

the

government

submitted

that

"maritime

drug

trafficking . . . has significantly increased over the past years"
and that Puerto Rico "has seen a dramatic increase in overall drug
use and consumption[.]"

The government further stated, "[a]ny

potential argument that the defendant acted as a mere 'mule' who
now

deserves

a

downward

departure

.

.

.

directly

potential victims of the defendant's offense[.]"

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snubs

the

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Entry ID: 5947832

In his sentencing memorandum, the defendant requested
that

the

Court

sentence[.]"

"not

impose

a

strict

Sentencing

Guidelines

Instead, the defendant requested a sentence below

the mandatory minimum or, "[i]n the alternative," the mandatory
minimum itself.3
provided

some

purposes."

At the sentencing hearing, defense counsel

additional

points

of

reference

"for

persuasion

Drawing the court's attention to "similar" cases

previously before the District of Puerto Rico, defense counsel
observed

that

conspiracy

"leaders"

received

sentences

of

approximately 188 months, whereas other participants received
lesser sentences, such as 97 months, 125 months, or the applicable
mandatory minimum.

Defense counsel then asked the court to

consider the fact that the defendant was a "minor participant" in
fashioning

its

sentence.

In

response,

the

district

court

acknowledged that the government's sentencing memorandum "assumes
that [the defendant] may be a mule[.]"
The prosecutor immediately disputed that the defendant
was a lesser participant, stating that the government believed,
based on the debriefing of a coconspirator, that the defendant was

3

The defendant's sentencing memorandum posits the statutory
minimum as 60 months rather than 120 months, a mistake brought to
the district court's attention by defense counsel at the outset of
the sentencing hearing.
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an organizer of the drug-trafficking scheme in question.

Entry ID: 5947832

"So that

being said and following in line with the cases that [defense
counsel] mentioned," the prosecutor argued, "it would behoove this
Court to sentence him within this guideline range."
As the hearing drew to a close, defense counsel pushed
back

on

the

suggestion

leadership role.

that

the

defendant

held

any

kind

of

Without speaking directly to defense counsel's

argument, the district court moved directly to allocution. Noting,
inter alia, the defendant's status as a father, his lack of a
criminal record or history of substance abuse, and his past illegal
entry into the United States, the court imposed a sentence of 188
months' imprisonment.4
defendant's

request

for

The court did not indicate whether the
a

below-guidelines

sentence

had

been

entertained as a motion, or denied as such, and the court made no
findings concerning the only fact debated at the hearing; i.e.,
defendant's alleged role as an organizer of the conspiracy.

The

court

the

only

noted

that

it

had

"taken

into

consideration

arguments of counsel[.]"

4

Over a year after the sentencing hearing, the district court
granted the defendant's motion to reduce his sentence, based on
the U.S. Sentencing Commission's change to the drug quantity table,
made retroactive pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 994(u). The court reduced
the defendant's sentence from 188 to 151 months.
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II.

Date Filed: 10/23/2015

Entry ID: 5947832

Analysis

On appeal, the defendant attacks the reasonableness of
his sentence.

Such a challenge "involves a procedural as well as

a substantive inquiry."

United States v. Politano, 522 F.3d 69,

72 (1st Cir. 2008) (citing Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51
(2007)).

"We first determine whether the district court made any

procedural errors" such as "selecting a sentence based on clearly
erroneous facts[.]"

Id. (quoting Gall, 552 U.S. at 51).

In the

absence of procedural error, "we next turn to the substantive
reasonableness of the sentence actually imposed[.]"

Id.

"We

review preserved objections to both the procedural and substantive
reasonableness of a sentence for abuse of discretion."

United

States v. Medina-Villegas, 700 F.3d 580, 583 (1st Cir. 2012).
Where a claim has not been preserved, our review is for plain
error.

Id.

This entails four showings: "(1) that an error

occurred (2) which was clear or obvious and which not only (3)
affected

the

defendant's

substantial

rights,

but

also

(4)

seriously impaired the fairness, integrity, or public reputation
of judicial proceedings."

Id. (quoting United States v. Duarte,

246 F.3d 56, 60 (1st Cir. 2001)).
The defendant lodges both procedural and substantive
complaints, but we need only address one: sentencing based on
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erroneous facts.
erred

by

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Date Filed: 10/23/2015

Entry ID: 5947832

The defendant claims that the district court

allegedly

relying

upon

the

government's

unsupported

assertion that the defendant was an organizer of the conspiracy,
which the defendant directly and explicitly challenged when it was
raised for the first time at the sentencing hearing.
On appeal, the government has made no attempt to defend
its assertion that the defendant was a "leader" or "organizer."
In fact, at oral argument, the government pointed to no evidence
on the record that the defendant was an organizer and, indeed,
conceded that there was no such evidence. In any event, the record
tends to belie the government's abandoned claims of leadership.
First, the offense conduct articulated in the PSR, which did not
attribute

to

the

defendant

an

aggravating-role

enhancement,

describes all defendants as having "equal roles in the conspiracy."
The government did not file an objection to the PSR or seek a
sentencing

enhancement.

Second,

the

government's

sentencing

memorandum anticipated that the defendant would claim a mere bit
part in the affair.

Rather than countering that the defendant

played a major role, the government protested that any downward
variance on this basis would snub the potential victims of the
offense.

As the district court noted, this position assumes that

the defendant was, in fact, a minor participant.
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Finally, at the

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trial of the defendant's confederates, counsel for one of the
defendants told the jury that the conspirators who pled guilty,
rather than those on trial, were the ones "responsible" for the
scheme.

The government objected to this claim for referring to

facts not in evidence.

The court sustained the objection.

The

government may find it convenient for the pleading defendants to
be "responsible" for the conspiracy now that their codefendants'
trial has closed, but what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the
gander.

The record cannot abide the government's volte-face.
Even if we assume that the defendant did not adequately

preserve his objection,5 however, "it is impossible to determine,
based on this record, whether a clear and obvious error (or for
that matter, any error at all) occurred." United States v. Mendez,
___ F.3d ___, No. 14-1566, 2015 WL 5306457, at *4 (1st Cir. 2015).
From start to finish, the sentencing hearing centered almost

5

It is typically the defendant's responsibility to police
the adequacy of the record by objecting to any deficiencies in the
district court's explanations. See United States v. Gilman, 478
F.3d 440, 447 (1st Cir. 2007). But on the facts of this case,
where defense counsel engaged in a highly consequential factual
dispute before the sentencing court, and where the government's
position in that dispute had little to no support in the record,
and where the district court failed to send any signal as to how
its resolution of the critical question played into its sentencing
rationale, we cannot justly lay sole responsibility for the
record's ambiguity at the feet of the defendant.
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entirely on the question of whether the defendant was a leader or
organizer as opposed to a mere minor participant in the conspiracy.
Yet, the record is silent as to how the court resolved that
question.
"While we have on occasion gone to significant lengths
in inferring the reasoning behind, and thus in affirming, some
less-than-explicit explanations by district courts, there are
limits.

If we are in fact wholly unable to discern the court's

rationale,

appellate

necessary."

review

is

unworkable

and

a

remand

is

Id. (internal citations and quotation marks omitted).

Such is the case here.
On the central question presented at the sentencing
hearing, the court merely observed in closing that it had "taken
into consideration the arguments of counsel to sentence him to the
minimum of the guideline range[.]"

But the sentence itself is one

that neither party clearly requested, and it therefore offers us
no

insight

into

whether

defendant's

role

to

be

the

court

did

minor

or

major.

or

did

not

Perhaps

find
the

the

court

understood the defendant to have requested a sentence at the low
end of the guidelines range rather than a sentence below the
guidelines range, but, here too, inferences from the record point

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in both directions and frustrate our capacity to engage in a
meaningful analysis.
Although the law "does not require a district court to
be precise to the point of pedantry," United States v. Fernández–
Cabrera, 625 F.3d 48, 53 (1st Cir. 2010), we must be able to
ascertain the court's findings to engage in effective appellate
review.

See Mendez, 2015 WL 5306457, at *5.

"We cannot do that

here and, therefore, are unable to effectively consider even the
first prong of plain error review."
III.

Id.

Conclusion

The Court's holding today is an exceedingly narrow one,
confined to the unique and opaque record before us.

Where the

sentencing hearing is largely devoted to a single, highly material
issue debated by the parties, and where resolution of that issue
in favor of the prosecution would be clear error, we need to know
how the court resolved the question in exercising its broad
sentencing discretion in order that we may perform our appellate
function of determining whether the sentencing was procedurally

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correct.

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Entry ID: 5947832

For the reasons stated above, the defendant's sentence

is VACATED and the action is REMANDED for re-sentencing.6

6

We make no comment on the appropriate sentence that may
follow a properly conducted sentencing hearing. In addition, we
need not address the defendant's contention that the district court
committed procedural error by failing to apply the "safety valve"
provision of the sentencing guidelines that permits relief from
otherwise mandatory minimum sentences if certain criteria are met.
See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f); U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2. We recognize that the
defendant's sentencing memorandum appears to light upon the
elements of a safety valve reduction, however ungracefully.
A
defendant does not need to incant the magic words "safety valve"
in order to invoke its protections, but the defendant also bears
the burden of raising the issue with sufficient clarity. United
States v. Richardson, 225 F.3d 46, 53 (1st Cir. 2000) ("The
defendant bears the burden of showing his entitlement to a safety
valve reduction.").
We express no opinion as to whether that
threshold was met here or whether the defendant qualifies under
the relevant provision.
The district court may evaluate the
defendant's qualifications in the first instance upon remand.
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