United States v. Rafael Cabrera
United States v. Rafael Cabrera
Opinion
NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _______________
No. 22-1552 _______________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
RAFAEL CABRERA, Appellant _______________
On appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 2:13-cr-00048-001) Chief U.S. District Judge: Honorable Mark R. Hornak _______________
Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on June 20, 2023
Before: KRAUSE, BIBAS, and MATEY, Circuit Judges
(Filed: June 21, 2023) _______________
OPINION* _______________ BIBAS, Circuit Judge.
Rafael Cabrera was caught with roughly 700 bricks of heroin. He was later convicted
of conspiring to distribute at least 100 grams of a mixture containing heroin under
21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(1)(B)(i), 846. Though the conviction was straightforward, his sentencing
* This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and, under I.O.P. 5.7, is not binding precedent. has been circuitous. This appeal is his third. Now he says the District Court erred by
(1) counting two prior local-ordinance violations toward his criminal-history score and
(2) failing to consider and apply all the sentencing factors. Both arguments fail.
We review the District Court’s findings of fact for clear error and a sentence’s reasona-
bleness for abuse of discretion. United States v. Tomko,
562 F.3d 558, 564–65, 567–68 (3d
Cir. 2009) (en banc).
First, the two prior convictions were properly counted. Under § 4A1.2(c)(2) of the Sen-
tencing Guidelines, local-ordinance violations do not count toward a defendant’s criminal-
history score. Cabrera simply asserts that his prior convictions were for local violations.
But he has no evidence to back up that assertion. The government, on the other hand, has
produced Cabrera’s court records. Those documents reveal that he was convicted of state
crimes. For the first conviction, he pleaded guilty to “wandering/prowling to obtain/sell [a
controlled dangerous substance]” under N.J. Stat. § 2C:33-2.1(b). Supp. App. 43. And for
the second, he pleaded guilty to “obstructing the administration of law” under N.J. Stat.
§ 2C:29-1(a). Supp. App. 44. Because neither conviction was under a local ordinance,
Cabrera’s only challenge to them fails. Plus, the Guidelines count at most four prior con-
victions with short sentences toward a criminal-history score. U.S.S.G. § 4A1.1(c). But he
had six. Either way, he would get four criminal-history points.
Second, Cabrera’s sentence was reasonable. Cabrera frames his argument as one about
substantive reasonableness. But he argues that the District Court ignored his arguments and
the sentencing factors. Those claims go to the sentence’s procedural reasonableness. See
United States v. Flores-Mejia,
759 F.3d 253, 256–57 (3d Cir. 2014) (en banc). Yet Cabrera
2 forfeited any procedural-reasonableness objection below. In any event, the District Court
properly considered the sentencing factors and Cabrera’s arguments, even if it did not list
them one by one. See JA 223–31; United States v. Lessner,
498 F.3d 185, 203(3d Cir.
2007). So it did not err, let alone plainly.
Nor was the sentence substantively unreasonable. The District Court imposed a sen-
tence twenty-eight months below the bottom of Cabrera’s Guidelines range. We may pre-
sume that a below-Guidelines sentence is reasonable. United States v. Handerhan,
739 F.3d 114, 124(3d Cir. 2014). Cabrera has neither rebutted that presumption nor explained why
“no reasonable sentencing court would have imposed” his sentence. Tomko,
562 F.3d at 568. Because the District Court neither erred nor abused its discretion, we will affirm.
3
Reference
- Status
- Unpublished