United States v. Leopoldo Meza-Villarello

Meza-Villarello was deported as an illegal alien in 1971. He was convicted of violat ing 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (being a deported alien found in the United States), in 1975, and again in 1979.

The principal point on appeal (from the 1979 conviction) is raised by an instruction tendered upon a double-jeopardy theory. The court rejected the instruction.

The government’s proof had established that the defendant was deported in 1971; that in 1975 he was found in the United States and convicted of violating section 1326; and that he was arrested in 1978 on a Calexico street. Following his 1975 conviction, the defendant served a prison sentence. There is no proof that he was again deported. The government proved that after 1971 the defendant had not received permission to enter the United States.

The requested instruction would have told the jury that it could not return a verdict of guilty unless it found beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had left the United States under a “lawful order of deportation or of voluntary departure” subsequent to his 1975 sentencing. The defense argued that this instruction was necessary because unless defendant had officially been removed from the…