United States v. Mario Moran

MEMORANDUM

Mario Moran (“Moran”) appeals his sentence of 144 months’ imprisonment following a guilty plea to one count of racketeering conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (d). Moran challenges the district court’s determination that the conduct underlying his racketeering conviction was a conspiracy to commit murder and disputes the district court’s caleulatiori of his Guidelines range based on this determination. Moran further argues that his sentence was substantively unreasonable. We affirm.

1. The district court did not err in finding that Moran knew of a conspiracy by 38th Street Gang members to murder certain individuals when he provided these gang members with firearms. According to the factual basis in Moran’s plea agreement, in January 2010, Moran provided firearms to a 38th Street Gang member knowing these weapons could be used to shoot at others. Moran contends that the district court could not have found, based solely on that factual basis, that Moran knew of gang members’ plan to murder certain individuals. However, the district court did not rely solely on Moran’s plea agreement. The court also relied upon cooperating witness statements and summaries of…