Mejia

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, No. 06-50220 v. EDWIN MEJIA, a/k/a EDWIN JOE  D.C. No.

CR-04-01615-SVW

MEJIA, EDWIN JHONBANY MEJIA, JOE

OPINION

JHONBANY,

Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Stephen V. Wilson, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted November 18, 2008—Pasadena, California

Filed March 24, 2009

Before: Myron H. Bright,* Stephen S. Trott and Michael Daly Hawkins, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Trott

*The Honorable Myron H. Bright, Senior United States Circuit Judge for the Eighth Circuit, sitting by designation. COUNSEL

Alissa Sawano Peterson, Irvine, California, for the defen- dant/appellant.

Raymond O. Aghaian, Assistant United States Attorney, Riv- erside, California, for the plaintiff/appellee.

OPINION

TROTT, Circuit Judge:

Edwin Mejia challenges both his conviction and his sen- tence of 188 months imprisonment plus five years supervised release for possession and distribution of methamphetamine. Mejia asserts (1) he was…