US v. Zayas-Rodriguez
Filing
OPINION issued by Sandra L. Lynch, Appellate Judge; David H. Souter,* Associate Supreme Court Justice and Bruce M. Selya, Appellate Judge. Unpublished. *of the Supreme Court of the United States, sitting by designation. [15-2060]
Case: 15-2060
Document: 00117106998
Page: 1
Date Filed: 01/18/2017
Entry ID: 6063115
Not for Publication in West's Federal Reporter
United States Court of Appeals
For the First Circuit
No. 15-2060
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Appellee,
v.
WILLIAM ZAYAS-RODRIGUEZ,
Defendant, Appellant.
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO
[Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colón, Chief U.S. District Judge]
Before
Lynch, Circuit Judge,
Souter, Associate Justice,*
and Selya, Circuit Judge.
Barbara J. Sweeney on brief for appellant.
Tiffany V. Monrose, Assistant United States Attorney, Mariana
E. Bauzá-Almonte, Assistant United States Attorney, Chief,
Appellate Division, and Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United States
Attorney, on brief for appellee.
January 18, 2017
*
Hon. David H. Souter, Associate Justice (Ret.) of the
Supreme Court of the United States, sitting by designation.
Case: 15-2060
Document: 00117106998
LYNCH,
guilty
to
Circuit Judge.
possession
trafficking
crime
imprisonment.
Page: 2
of
and
a
Date Filed: 01/18/2017
William Zayas-Rodriguez pled
firearm
received
Entry ID: 6063115
a
in
furtherance
sentence
of
of
70
a
drug
months'
We reject his challenges to the procedural and
substantive reasonableness of his sentence and affirm.
I.
On April 21, 2014, a police cruiser in Cayey, Puerto
Rico attempted to stop a car that appeared to have illegally tinted
windows.
The car sped off, but after a chase the police detained
it and identified its driver as Zayas-Rodriguez.
While checking
Zayas-Rodriguez's license and registration, an officer noticed a
pistol "in plain view, partially hidden under the [car's] front
passenger seat."
The car also contained $1,033 in cash, as well
as significant amounts of ammunition and controlled substances.
On September 4, 2014, Zayas-Rodriguez agreed to plead
guilty
to
possession
trafficking crime.
of
a
firearm
in
furtherance
See 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i).
of
a
drug
That offense
triggers a mandatory minimum sentence of 60 months, id., and so 60
months was the advisory sentence under the Sentencing Guidelines,
see U.S.S.G. § 2K2.4(b) (providing that, for § 924(c) convictions,
"the guideline sentence is the minimum term of imprisonment").
In
the non-binding plea agreement, the government agreed to recommend
a 60-month sentence and to request dismissal of the other charges
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Case: 15-2060
Document: 00117106998
at sentencing.
Page: 3
Date Filed: 01/18/2017
Entry ID: 6063115
The district court accepted the plea on October
15, 2014.
On August 25, 2015, at sentencing, Zayas-Rodriguez's
counsel did not object to any of the information in the PreSentence Report ("PSR"), and Zayas-Rodriguez himself confirmed
that the PSR's facts were accurate.
The district court, after
stating that it had "considered the sentencing factors under [18
U.S.C. §] 3553(a)," the plea agreement, and its obligation to
"impos[e] a sentence that [wa]s not harsher than necessary," chose
to impose a 70-month sentence.
The court explained that it had
taken into account Zayas-Rodriguez's numerous prior arrests and
convictions, as well as "the elements of the instant offense."
Zayas-Rodriguez timely appealed.
II.
Zayas-Rodriguez
claims
that
his
procedurally and substantively unreasonable.1
A.
sentence
was
both
His arguments fail.
Procedural Reasonableness
We need not resolve the parties' disagreement as to the
appropriate standard of review because there was no abuse of
1
As the government concedes, the plea agreement's waiverof-appeal clause does not bar this appeal because the district
court varied upward from the agreement's joint sentencing
recommendation. See United States v. Rivera-González, 776 F.3d
45, 48–49 (1st Cir. 2015).
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Entry ID: 6063115
discretion, much less plain error, in the sentence's procedural
reasonableness.
First, Zayas-Rodriguez argues that his sentence was
procedurally
unreasonable
because
the
district
court
"extemporaneously" calculated a criminal history score without
giving him notice of the data or methodology used.
But the court
explicitly confirmed its awareness that "the provisions of Chapter
4 of the Sentencing Guidelines do not apply to . . . [§] 924(c)
violations," and when viewed in context, its calculation was merely
a remark meant to help illustrate, for § 3553(a) purposes, the
extensiveness of Zayas-Rodriguez's arrest record.
See United
States v. Flores-Machicote, 706 F.3d 16, 21 (1st Cir. 2013)
(observing
that
§
3553(a)(1)
instructs
sentencing
judges
consider the defendant's "history and characteristics").
to
And the
court had no obligation to give advance notice that it might choose
an upward variance based on facts contained in the PSR.
See
Irizarry v. United States, 553 U.S. 708, 713–14 (2008).
As a corollary to his first argument, Zayas-Rodriguez
argues next that the district court mischaracterized one of his
prior offenses as a "carjacking," when in fact the offense was an
illegal appropriation.
misunderstood
the
Even assuming arguendo that the court
precise
nature
of
that
prior
argument still falls short; any error was harmless.
offense,
the
Because the
district court's broader point was the extensiveness of the arrest
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Entry ID: 6063115
record, we are satisfied that the court's misunderstanding, if
any, had no effect on the sentence.
See United States v. Alphas,
785 F.3d 775, 780 (1st Cir. 2015) (citing Williams v. United
States, 503 U.S. 193, 203 (1992)).
Finally, Zayas-Rodriguez argues that his sentence was
procedurally unreasonable because the district court gave undue
consideration to the effects of gun violence on Puerto Rico's
citizens.
But as we have repeatedly stated, a district court may
consider such issues as deterrence-related factors that help to
justify an upward variance, so long as the court does not "focus
too
much
on
[defendant]."
the
community
and
too
little
on
the
individual
Flores-Machicote, 706 F.3d at 24; see also, e.g.,
United States v. Pedroza-Orengo, 817 F.3d 829, 834 (1st Cir. 2016);
United States v. Pantojas-Cruz, 800 F.3d 54, 59-60 (1st Cir. 2015);
United States v. Narváez-Soto, 773 F.3d 282, 285–86 (1st Cir.
2014); United States v. Politano, 522 F.3d 69, 73–74 (1st Cir.
2008).
In Zayas-Rodriguez's case, the court appropriately tied
the community-based factors to the other § 3553(a) factors and to
his individual circumstances -- particularly the fact that the
police had found drugs, in addition to a firearm, when they
searched his car.
B.
Substantive Reasonableness
Zayas-Rodriguez
also
substantively unreasonable.
claims
that
his
sentence
was
Once again, we need not resolve any
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Document: 00117106998
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Date Filed: 01/18/2017
Entry ID: 6063115
uncertainty over the appropriate standard of review2 because the
sentence was substantively reasonable under any standard.
The
district court's "ultimate responsibility [wa]s to articulate a
plausible rationale and arrive at a sensible result,"
United
States v. Carrasco-de-Jesús, 589 F.3d 22, 30 (1st Cir. 2009), and
it
met
those
Rodriguez's
obligations
extensive
by
plausibly
criminal
reasoning
history
and
that
the
Zayas-
"serious
combination" of weapons and drugs found in his car warranted a
modest upward variance from the mandatory minimum.
"That the
sentencing court chose not to attach to certain of the mitigating
factors
the
significance
that
[Zayas-Rodriguez]
deserved does not make the sentence unreasonable."
thinks
they
United States
v. Clogston, 662 F.3d 588, 593 (1st Cir. 2011).
III.
For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Zayas-Rodriguez's
sentence.
2
It is not settled whether "a failure to . . . object[]
in the district court to the substantive reasonableness of a
sentence begets plain error review" or abuse of discretion review.
United States v. Ruiz-Huertas, 792 F.3d 223, 228 (1st Cir.), cert.
denied, 136 S. Ct. 258 (2015).
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