United States v. Marcela Vega-Martinez


United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 17-3765 ___________________________ United States of America lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee v. Marcela Vega-Martinez, also known as Marcela Hernandez lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Dubuque ____________ Submitted: November 12, 2018 Filed: February 1, 2019 [Unpublished] ____________ Before COLLOTON, SHEPHERD, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM. Appellant Marcela Vega-Martinez pled guilty to one count of unlawful use of identification documents, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a). The district court1 1 The Honorable Linda R. Reade, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa. sentenced her to a time-served sentence of 111 days imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Vega-Martinez appeals her sentence, asserting that the district court violated her due-process rights when it did not strike alleged unproven and uncharged criminal conduct from the Presentence Investigation Report (PSR). Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. In July 2017, Vega-Martinez, a native and citizen of Mexico and illegally in the United States, used a fraudulent permanent resident card and social security number to complete an Immigration Form I-9 in order to obtain employment with a business in Iowa. Vega-Martinez was subsequently charged with one count of unlawful use of identification documents and entered a guilty plea. After Vega- Martinez pled guilty, the United State Probation Office prepared a PSR. The PSR included a paragraph detailing the execution of a search warrant on Vega-Martinez’s residence and listing the items seized during the search, namely counterfeit immigration documents, social security cards, and a substance that tested positive for the presence of marijuana. Vega-Martinez objected to the inclusion of this paragraph and requested that it be stricken from the final PSR because it involved “uncharged and unproven criminal conduct by [Vega-Martinez] in violation of her right to due process of law.” Vega-Martinez similarly objected to the inclusion of a separate paragraph in the PSR that stated that Vega-Martinez had previously used fraudulent documents to obtain employment at another Iowa business. In the final PSR, the Probation Office noted Vega-Martinez’s objections but stated that the district court did not need to resolve them before sentencing because they had no impact on the calculation of Vega-Martinez’s Sentencing Guidelines range. At sentencing, the district court stated that it was not considering the objected- to portions of the PSR. The district court imposed a time-served sentence of 111 days imprisonment and ordered that Vega-Martinez serve a three-year term of supervised release. One of the conditions of Vega-Martinez’s supervised release specified that, -2- if she were removed or deported, she could not reenter the United States without permission, but would not be on active supervision while outside the country. Vega-Martinez appeals, arguing that the district court’s refusal to strike portions of the PSR violated her due-process rights based on the prejudicial impact that the inclusion of these paragraphs could have on possible removal proceedings. “We review constitutional challenges to a sentence de ...

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