United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's conviction and sentence for illegally re-entering the U.S. following removal are affirmed where: 1) any doubt arising from the possibility that the governments record search was less comprehensive than the search conducted for a Certificate of Non-Existence of Record was allayed by the introduction of defendant's own sworn statement that he had not applied for permission to re-enter, as well as the arresting agent's testimony that defendant admitted that he lacked documents allowing him to be in the U.S. legally; 2) nothing in Melendez-Diaz was clearly irreconcilable with Bahena-Cardenas's holding that a warrant of removal is nontestimonial because it was not made in anticipation of litigation; 3) the jury instructions as a whole adequately presented defendant's theory of the case; and 4) the district court imposed a sentence in the middle of the Guidelines range after carefully and rationally considering the factors in 18 U.S.C. section 3553(a).

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/02/2010
• Decided 05/26/2010
• Published 05/26/2010

Judges

• Before: WILLIAM C. CANBY, JR., RONALD M. GOULD and SANDRA S. IKUTA, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Matthew J. Gardner, Assistant United States Attorney, San Diego, CA, for the plaintiff-appellee., James Fife, Assistant Federal Public Defender, San Diego, CA, for the defendant-appellant.