United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction and sentence for assaulting a federal officer with a dangerous weapon is affirmed where: 1) a district court does not abuse its discretion in refusing to give an instruction on a lesser included offense, where, as here, a rational jury could not have convicted the defendant of the lesser-included offense without finding the element that would convert the lesser offense into the greater offense; and 2) the district court did not commit clear error in finding on sentencing that defendant's conduct was motivated by the victim's official status.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/09/2009
• Decided 10/26/2009
• Published 10/26/2009

Judges

• N.R. SMITH, Circuit Judge:, Before:  JOHN T. NOONAN, MARSHA S. BERZON, and N. RANDY SMITH, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Alex D. Gonzalez, Gonzalez & Smith, PC, Chandler, AZ, for the defendant-appellant, Rafael Rivera-Alonzo., Karla H. Delord, Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, for the appellee, United States of America.