United States Ninth Circuit

Defendant's sentence for sexual abuse of a child, sexual exploitation of children, and witness tampering is affirmed in part where the district court did not err when it granted the government's motion for a downward departure but failed to announce the extent of that departure and to calculate a new Guidelines sentencing range before it considered the 18 U.S.C. section 3553(a) sentencing factors and imposed an above-Guidelines sentence. However, the sentence is vacated in part where the district court erred when it used the mandatory minimum sentence for one count as the starting point for sentencing all counts.

Appellate Information

• Argued 02/11/2010
• Decided 07/08/2010
• Published 07/08/2010

Judges

• Carlos Bea

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Peter C. Wolff, Edward H. Kubo