United States v. Ada Cerecer-Castro

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

United States v. Ada Cerecer-Castro

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION FILED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS AUG 6 2021 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 20-10314

Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. Nos. 4:19-cr-01333-JGZ-EJM-2 v. 4:19-cr-01333-JGZ-EJM

ADA SELENE CERECER-CASTRO, MEMORANDUM* Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona Jennifer G. Zipps, District Judge, Presiding

Submitted August 4, 2021** San Francisco, California

Before: THOMAS, Chief Judge, and HAWKINS and McKEOWN, Circuit Judges.

Ada Selene Cerecer-Castro appeals her sentence on the ground that the

district court did not adequately state the reasons for the sentence it imposed. The

parties are familiar with the facts, so we do not repeat them here. We have

* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3. ** The panel unanimously concludes this case is suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2). jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we affirm.

Cerecer-Castro did not object to the district court’s explanation at the

sentencing hearing, so we review for plain error. See United States v. Waknine,

543 F.3d 546, 554 n.4 (9th Cir. 2008). We find none. The district court stated that

it had considered the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors and the parties’ memoranda, and

it asked the government to speak to Cerecer-Castro’s culpability as compared with

her husband’s. The district court imposed a within-Guidelines sentence, rejecting

Cerecer-Castro’s argument that she was less culpable than her husband. It found

that her offense was harmful, that she abused her border crossing card, that she

used her children to facilitate the offense, and that she was minimizing her

responsibility. The district court did not plainly err in considering the relevant

factors and imposing a sentence at the bottom of the Guidelines range. See

Chavez-Meza v. United States, 138 S. Ct. 1959, 1964 (2018) (“When a judge

applies a sentence within the Guidelines range, he or she often does not need to

provide a lengthy explanation.”).

AFFIRMED.

2

Reference

Status
Unpublished