United States v. Gutierrez

High‐ranking Latin Kings gang members pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy and extortion (Zamora) and (Gutierrez) to racketeering conspiracy and to possessing an illegal drug with intent to distribute it. The judge credited Zamora with acceptance of responsibility, but failed to indicate Zamora’s guidelines range, and imposed a 240-month prison term plus supervised release with special conditions, requiring Zamora to participate in job‐training and to perform community service if unemployed. The judge refused to credit Gutierrez with acceptance of responsibility, stating that he had fallen “substantially short of accepting responsibility,” then sentenced Gutierrez at the bottom of a calculated 210-262-month range, plus supervised release with special conditions requiring a mental‐health evaluation, mental‐health treatment, working to obtain a GED, and, if unemployed, community service. The Seventh Circuit vacated. On remand the judge commended Zamora for good behavior; calculated a range of 168-210 months; imposed a sentence of 200 months; and reimposed supervised release. After questioning Gutierrez, the judge, not calculating a guidelines range, reduced his sentence, with “all other aspects of the [original] judgment ... [to] remain in effect.” The Seventh Circuit again vacated. The judge failed to give advance notice that he was considering discretionary conditions; imposed conditions that have been previously deemed invalid; and failed to determine the compatibility of those conditions with 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors. The judge failed to calculate Gutierrez’s guidelines range and did not indicate how the issue of acceptance of responsibility was resolved. View "United States v. Gutierrez" on Justia Law