US v. Julio Rivera Rosale

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 7:14-cr-00050-GEC-3 Copies to all parties and the district court. [999871228]. [15-4555, 15-4556]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 15-4555

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff – Appellee,
v.
JULIO CESAR
Rosales,

RIVERA

ROSALES,

a/k/a

Julio

Cesar

Rivera-

Defendant - Appellant.

No. 15-4556

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff – Appellee,
v.
JULIO CESAR RIVERA ROSALES,
Defendant - Appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Western
District of Virginia, at Roanoke.
Glen E. Conrad, Chief
District Judge. (7:14-cr-00050-GEC-3; 7:15-cr-00013-GEC-1)

Submitted:

June 23, 2016

Decided:

Before MOTZ, KING, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.

June 28, 2016

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Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Robert L. Flax, ROBERT L. FLAX, P.C., Richmond, Virginia, for
Appellant.
John P. Fishwick, Jr., United States Attorney,
Ashley B. Neese, Assistant United States Attorney, Ashwin
Shandilya, Third Year Law Student, Roanoke, Virginia, for
Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
In these consolidated cases, Julio Cesar Rivera Rosales
appeals

the

district

court’s

judgment

sentencing

him

to

151

months in prison after he pled guilty to conspiracy to possess
with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine,
in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(1)(A), 846 (2012), as well
as the consecutive 24-month sentence the district court ordered
upon revoking the supervised release term that was imposed for
Rosales’

previous

illegal

entry

and

narcotics

convictions.

Rosales asserts that the district court impaired his right to
confront witnesses against him when it sentenced him on the drug
conspiracy conviction and revoked his supervised release, and
that the Government failed to prove by a preponderance of the
evidence

the

drug

quantity

conspiracy conviction.

attributable

to

him

for

his

drug

Finding no error, we affirm.

Rosales asserts that his Sixth Amendment right to confront
adverse witnesses was violated because the district court, in
fashioning an appropriate sentence, considered hearsay evidence
presented in Rosales’ presentence report and witness testimony.
This argument is meritless, however, because the Confrontation
Clause does not apply at sentencing.

United States v. Powell,

650 F.3d 388, 393 (4th Cir. 2011).
Moreover, it is well established that a sentencing court
may

consider

“any

relevant

information
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before

it,

including

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uncorroborated

hearsay,

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provided

that

the

information

has

sufficient indicia of reliability to support its accuracy.”

Id.

at 392 (internal quotation marks omitted).

A district court may

also “‘approximate the quantity of the controlled substance’”
attributable

to

the

defendant

using

only

“‘uncertain

witness

estimates’” as long as it imposes a sentence “‘at the low end of
the range’” of such estimates.

United States v. Crawford, 734

F.3d 339, 342 (4th Cir. 2013) (citing U.S. Sentencing Guidelines
Manual § 2D1.1 cmt. n.5; United States v. Bell, 667 F.3d 431,
441 (4th Cir. 2011)).
alone

can

provide

quantity.”

Thus, “[f]or sentencing purposes, hearsay

sufficiently

reliable

evidence

of

[drug]

United States v. Uwaeme, 975 F.2d 1016, 1019 (4th

Cir. 1992).

Importantly, although the court “can consider a

witness’s status as a drug user or [criminal] in assessing his
or

her

credibility,

this

Court

has

not

found

attributes render a witness per se unreliable.”
F.3d at 343.

that

these

Crawford, 734

With these authorities in mind, we reject Rosales’

argument that the drug weight with which he was attributed was
not proven by a preponderance of the evidence.
record

establishes

that

the

district

court

Indeed, the

relied

on

the

conservative drug amounts the probation officer attributed to
Rosales, which were consistent with witness accounts.
We

also

discern

no

violation

of

Rosales’

Confrontation

Rights as pertaining to the revocation of his previously imposed
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supervised

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release

term.

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To

the

contrary,

the

record

establishes that the district court revoked Rosales’ supervised
release based on his guilty plea to the conspiracy count and his
outright

admission

to

violating

the

terms

of

his

supervised

release.
Based
judgments.
legal
before

on

the

we

affirm

the

district

court’s

We dispense with oral argument because the facts and

contentions
this

foregoing,

court

are

adequately

and

argument

presented

would

not

in
aid

the
the

materials
decisional

process.
AFFIRMED

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