United States Fifth Circuit

Defendants' convictions and sentences for illegal acts stemming from their involvement in the Texas Mexican Mafia criminal organization are affirmed over claims of error regarding: 1) sufficiency of the evidence; 2) denial of a motion for a mistrial after a witness revealed his gun-shot wound scars to the jury during his testimony; 3) ineffective assistance of counsel; 4) a violation of due process in a failure to allow a defendant to enter his plea in front of the jury; 5) a finding that a defendant was responsible for the murder of an individual, for sentencing purposes; 6) a Blakely/Apprendi challenge; 7) a finding at sentencing that a defendant was a leader or organizer of a conspiracy count; and 8) a Booker claim.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/12/2007
• Published 04/13/2007

Judges

• PER CURIAM:, Before KING, WIENER, and OWEN, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fifth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Ellen A. Lockwood (argued), San Antonio, TX, for U.S., Edward L. Bravenec (argued), McKnight & Bravenec, San Antonio, TX, for Valles., Bowen W. Sutton (argued), Law Offices of Bowen W. Sutton, San Antonio, TX, for Garcia-Esparza., Vincent Dennis Callahan, III, San Antonio, TX, for Garcia., Adrienne Urrutia Wisenberg (argued), Solomon L. Wisenberg, PLLC, Washington, DC, for Zavala.