United States v. Omar Mora-Rivera

MEMORANDUM

Omar Mora-Rivera appeals from the 57-month sentence imposed following his guilty-plea conviction for being a deported alien found unlawfully in the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

The district court did not plainly err by including Mora-Rivera’s forgery conviction in the calculation of his criminal history category. On this record we conclude that Mora-Rivera’s forgery crime did not occur in the course of attempting to avoid detection or responsibility for the illegal reentry offense. Mora-Rivera himself stated that he obtained the forged documents “after [his] arrival” in the United States because he “sought employment.” When stopped by police, Mora-Rivera volunteered that he had counterfeit documents in his wallet. These actions are not consistent with the actions of someone seeking to avoid detection for remaining in the country illegally. There was no error, let alone “error that is so clear-cut, so obvious, a competent district judge should be able to avoid it without benefit of objection.” United States v. Gonzalez-Aparicio, 663 F.3d 419, 428 (9th Cir.2011) (citing United States v.…