United States v. Rodrigo Lizarraga-Beltran

MEMORANDUM

Rodrigo Lizarraga-Beltran appeals his 84-month sentence for violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 , unlawful reentry of a removed alien, as substantively unreasonable. He specifically argues that the district court unreasonably applied the 16-level enhancement under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(i) for a previous felony drug-trafficking conviction for which the sentence imposed exceeded 13 months. Mr. Lizarraga contends this enhancement was substantively unreasonable under the 18 U.S.C. § 3553 (a) factors because “the staleness of his predicate felony, his chronic health issues and advanced age are all unique circumstances” that require a sentence lower than the Guidelines range. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We review the substantive reasonableness of a sentence for abuse of discretion. United States v. Carty, 520 F.3d 984, 988 (9th Cir.2008). We affirm.

Mr. Lizarraga primarily relies on United States v. Amezcua-Vasquez, 567 F.3d 1050 (9th Cir.2009), to argue that the predicate drug-trafficking offense was “stale.” In Amezcua-Vasquez , we concluded that although “[i]t is not per se unreasonable to apply the enhancement…