Sentence Enhancement

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Ruben A. Paz-Giron

Case No.: 16-1554

Officials: BAUER, POSNER, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentence Enhancement

Appellant did not meet requirements for upward adjustment in sentencing guidelines

“Without the 8-level increase, the Guidelines range is 6 to 12 months rather than 24 months. See U.S.S.G. ch. 5, pt. A, and § 3E1.1. A miscalculation of the advisory range is ordinarily enough to establish prejudice for purposes of plain error review. That standard requires the defendant to show “a reasonable probability that, but for the error, the outcome of the proceeding would have been different.” MolinaMartinez v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 1338, 1343 (2016) (internal quotation marks omitted). Molina-Martinez held that “[w]hen a defendant is sentenced under an incorrect Guidelines range[,] … the error itself can, and most often will, be sufficient to show a reasonable probability of a different outcome absent the error.” Id. at 1345 (emphasis added). Moreover, we’ve emphasized that “[w]hen a district court incorrectly calculates the [G]uideline[s] range, we normally presume the improperly calculated [G]uideline[s] range influenced the judge’s choice of sentence, unless he says otherwise.” United States v. Adams, 746 F.3d 734, 743 (7th Cir. 2014). The normal presumption applies here.”

Vacated and remanded

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.