Filed: Mar. 28, 2018
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 28 2018 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 16-10425 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. 4:15-cr-01285-CKJ-DTF-1 v. CEASAR ADRIAN RODRIGUEZ, AKA MEMORANDUM * Cesar Adrian Rodriguez, Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Cindy K. Jorgenson, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted March 14, 2018 San Francisco, California Be
Summary: NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 28 2018 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 16-10425 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. 4:15-cr-01285-CKJ-DTF-1 v. CEASAR ADRIAN RODRIGUEZ, AKA MEMORANDUM * Cesar Adrian Rodriguez, Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Cindy K. Jorgenson, District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted March 14, 2018 San Francisco, California Bef..
More
NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS MAR 28 2018
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 16-10425
Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No.
4:15-cr-01285-CKJ-DTF-1
v.
CEASAR ADRIAN RODRIGUEZ, AKA MEMORANDUM *
Cesar Adrian Rodriguez,
Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Arizona
Cindy K. Jorgenson, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted March 14, 2018
San Francisco, California
Before: WATFORD and FRIEDLAND, Circuit Judges, and RAKOFF,** Senior
District Judge.
Ceasar Rodriguez appeals his conviction and 60-month sentence for
possession of counterfeit securities. We affirm his conviction, vacate his sentence,
and remand.
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
**
The Honorable Jed S. Rakoff, Senior United States District Judge for the
Southern District of New York, sitting by designation.
1. Because Rodriguez did not object in the district court, we review his
argument that the Government breached its plea agreement with him for plain
error. See Puckett v. United States,
556 U.S. 129, 143 (2009). While the
Government did not enthusiastically support the sentencing ranges to which it had
agreed, nothing it said was inconsistent with the view that a sentence within those
ranges was appropriate. The Government’s seemingly accidental misstatement
about the agreed-upon ranges was quickly corrected by the court. See United
States v. Heredia,
768 F.3d 1220, 1235 (9th Cir. 2014) (holding that the
government does not breach the plea agreement through a “slip of the tongue” that
is promptly corrected (quoting United States v. Alcala-Sanchez,
666 F.3d 571, 576
(9th Cir. 2012))). Contrary to its statement that it could not argue “for” the plea
agreement, the Government could have encouraged the court to accept the
agreement. But because this particular plea agreement did not require the
Government to advocate for the agreed-upon ranges, and the Government
encouraged the district court to accept the stipulated sentencing ranges in its pre-
hearing filings, it did not breach the agreement. Any breach therefore certainly
was not plain.
2. The district court’s statement, in response to a question from Rodriguez’s
lawyer, that it would be more comfortable with a 60-month sentence than with the
sentences contemplated by the rejected plea agreement does not warrant reversal
2
on plain error review. See United States v. Myers,
804 F.3d 1246, 1256 (9th Cir.
2015). Even assuming the statement violated Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure
11, any such error did not affect Rodriguez’s substantial rights or undermine the
integrity of the judicial proceedings. See Johnson v. United States,
520 U.S. 461,
467 (1997); United States v. Olano,
507 U.S. 725, 734 (1993). Rodriguez has not
argued that his decision to plead guilty was affected by the court’s statement, nor is
there an indication that the court’s decision to respond to counsel’s inquiry harmed
Rodriguez in any other way. Cf.
Myers, 804 F.3d at 1258.
3. We nonetheless vacate Rodriguez’s sentence because the district court
incorrectly calculated Rodriguez’s criminal history category based on the evidence
presented to it. The Government has waived the argument that the district court
correctly classified Rodriguez’s conviction for Arizona aggravated assault as a
crime of violence based on the information in the pre-sentence investigation report.
Even if the Government had not waived the issue, we would still vacate
Rodriguez’s sentence. We have previously held that Arizona aggravated assault is
not categorically a crime of violence. See United States v. Esparza-Herrera,
557
F.3d 1019, 1025 (9th Cir. 2009). And while Arizona’s aggravated assault statute is
divisible, see United States v. Cabrera-Perez,
751 F.3d 1000, 1005, 1007 (9th Cir.
2014), the record does not demonstrate that Rodriguez was convicted of a version
of the offense that would constitute a crime of violence. See United States v.
3
Sahagun-Gallegos,
782 F.3d 1094, 1099-100 (9th Cir. 2015). We have said that
miscalculating the guidelines range “is a significant procedural error that requires
us to remand for resentencing.” United States v. Munoz-Camarena,
631 F.3d
1028, 1030 (9th Cir. 2011); see also United States v. Lee,
821 F.3d 1124, 1126 (9th
Cir. 2016). We remand because there is a reasonable probability that the district
court would have sentenced Rodriguez differently if he were placed in Criminal
History Category IV rather than V. See Molina-Martinez v. United States, 136 S.
Ct. 1338, 1345 (2016); U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines Manual ch. 5, pt.
A, Sentencing Table (U.S. Sentencing Comm’n 2014).
4. Because Rodriguez will be resentenced, we do not reach his other
arguments about this particular sentencing proceeding. See United States v.
Gonzalez-Monterroso,
745 F.3d 1237, 1245 (9th Cir. 2014).1
AFFIRMED as to Rodriguez’s conviction; VACATED and REMANDED
as to Rodriguez’s sentence.
1
We do note that the district court appears to have believed erroneously that
it should not compare the sentences of Rodriguez and co-conspirator Joshua
Ramirez. In fact, it is very appropriate for sentencing courts to compare similarly
situated defendants in assessing the “nature and circumstances of the offense”
under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1). United States v. Saeteurn,
504 F.3d 1175, 1181-82
(9th Cir. 2007); cf. United States v. Carter,
560 F.3d 1107, 1121 (9th Cir. 2009).
We grant Rodriguez’s motion for judicial notice of documents in Ramirez’s
case.
4