United States v. Arellanes-Portillo


Appellate Case: 20-3165 Document: 010110690171 Date Filed: 05/27/2022 Page: 1 FILED United States Court of Appeals PUBLISH Tenth Circuit UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS May 27, 2022 Christopher M. Wolpert FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT Clerk of Court _________________________________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. No. 20-3165 JESUS ARELLANES-PORTILLO, Defendant - Appellant. _________________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Kansas (D.C. No. 2:17-CR-20074-JAR-11) _________________________________ Jacob Rasch-Chabot, Assistant Federal Public Defender (Virginia L. Grady, Federal Public Defender, with him on the briefs), Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant. Bryan C. Clark, Assistant United States Attorney (Duston J. Slinkard, Acting United States Attorney, and James A. Brown, Assistant United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Kansas City, Kansas, for Plaintiff-Appellee. _________________________________ Before BACHARACH, SEYMOUR, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges. _________________________________ PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge. _________________________________ Jesus Arellanes-Portillo pleaded guilty to a collection of federal drug-trafficking, money-laundering, and immigration crimes. He now challenges the procedural reasonableness of his sentence. Arellanes-Portillo argues that the district court misapplied Appellate Case: 20-3165 Document: 010110690171 Date Filed: 05/27/2022 Page: 2 a three-level aggravating-role adjustment in calculating his advisory guideline range for his money-laundering offenses. We hold that the district court plainly erred by basing the aggravating-role adjustment on relevant conduct for his drug offenses and not exclusively for his money-laundering offenses. That violated U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2S1.1 Application Note 2(C) (U.S. Sentencing Comm’n 2018).1 So exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a), we vacate and remand for resentencing. BACKGROUND I. The Indictment A federal grand jury sitting in the District of Kansas indicted multiple defendants for crimes committed on behalf of a Mexican drug-trafficking organization operating in Kansas City. The indictment charged Arellanes-Portillo with twelve crimes: one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)(ii), 18 U.S.C. § 2, and of conspiracy to distribute and to possess more than 100 kilograms of marijuana, in violation of §§ 846, 841(b)(1)(B)(vii), 18 U.S.C. § 2; three counts of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B)(ii), 18 U.S.C. § 2; one count of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of § 841(a)(1) (without designating a subsection (b) penalty provision), 18 U.S.C. § 2; three counts of using a telephone to facilitate the conspiracy, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b); two 1 Having identified the governing guideline manual, we simply cite the applicable guidelines sections throughout the opinion. 2 Appellate Case: 20-3165 Document: 010110690171 Date Filed: 05/27/2022 Page: 3 counts of money laundering for attempting to transport funds from Kansas to Mexico to promote the conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956(a)(2)(A), 2; and two counts of knowingly possessing false immigration documents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a).2 II. The Presentence Report Arellanes-Portillo pleaded guilty to all counts without a plea agreement. In a written plea petition preceding his guilty …

Original document
Source: All recent Immigration Decisions In All the U.S. Courts of Appeals