United States Ninth Circuit

Conviction for producing and possessing a sexually explicit video depicting a 14-year-old girl, in violation of 18 U.S.C. sections 2251(a) and 2252(a)(4)(B), is: 1) affirmed where venue in the Northern District of California for the production count was not improper, and National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, 132 S. Ct. 2566 (2012), does not undermine this court's precedent that Congress may regulate even purely intrastate production of child pornography and criminalize its intrastate possession; 2) affirmed where the district court did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained from his laptop computer; 3) affirmed where violations of Calif. Penal Code sections 261.5(d) and 288a(b)(2) are categorically offenses "relating to" aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward, and the district court properly app[lied the mandatory minimum sentence enhancement provisions in 28 U.S.C. sections 2251(e) and 2252(b)(2); but 3) reversed where the district court erred in its legal analysis when sustaining the defendant's objection to the inclusion of a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice under U.S.S.G. section 3C1.1.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/29/2015
• Published 07/29/2015

Judges

• IKUTA

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel