NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ______________ No. 19-3145 ______________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. MARTIN CASTRO-MOLINA, a/k/a Jose Noe Galsano-Castellano, Appellant ______________ On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 5-18-cr-00408-001) District Judge: Honorable Edward G. Smith ______________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) September 9, 2020 Before: CHAGARES, HARDIMAN, and MATEY, Circuit Judges. (Filed: September 10, 2020) ____________ OPINION* ____________ * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge. Martin Castro-Molina appeals his judgment of conviction on the ground that the District Court erred in denying his request for a jury instruction on a justification defense. Because he failed to establish the defense at trial, we will affirm. I A native of Mexico, Castro-Molina has entered the United States unlawfully and been removed several times. Most recently, he entered through Texas and made his way to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Local police arrested Castro-Molina in 2018 following a traffic stop and alerted immigration authorities, who reinstated a previous removal order. The Government then indicted Castro-Molina for illegal reentry following removal in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). Prior to trial, the Government filed a motion in limine to prevent Castro-Molina from presenting evidence supporting a justification defense. The District Court reserved judgment on the motion until jury selection. After jury selection, the Court denied the motion in limine and deferred until the charge conference whether to give a justification instruction. In its case in chief, the Government called Deportation Officer Gregory Marino, who testified that he interviewed Castro-Molina following his 2018 arrest in Bethlehem. During the interview, Castro-Molina admitted he did not fear returning to Mexico. In fact, he said he wanted to return as soon as possible. At trial, Castro-Molina testified as follows. Before his 2018 arrest, he had been removed from the United States three times. In January 2017, after his most recent 2 removal, he went to Reynosa, Mexico (a border city) to make enough money to travel home to Monterrey, Mexico. He lived and worked in Reynosa with a man named Angel from January until May. One night in May, a gang of armed men broke into Angel’s house, put a hood over Castro-Molina’s head, and questioned him about a large cache of weapons. After the men left, Angel assured Castro-Molina that he would “take care of everything.” App. 610. Two days later the gang returned. They kidnapped Angel’s nephew and his nephew’s friend. Before leaving, they said they would come back to kill Angel and “the other one.” Id. Understanding that he was “the other one,” Castro-Molina feared for his life, so he decided to leave Reynosa. Soon thereafter Castro-Molina bought a ticket and boarded a bus to Monterrey. Twenty-five minutes into the trip, Mexican military police stopped the bus and asked the passengers for identification. Castro-Molina did not have any identification, so police removed him from ...
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