United States v. Juan Lopez-Gonzales

Appellant, Juan Lopez-Gonzales, appeals from the sentence imposed after his conviction for felony illegal entry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325 (1976). The issue on appeal is whether the trial court failed to exercise its discretion by mechanically imposing the maximum sentence.

On August 11,1981, a border patrol agent observed an early model, heavily laden station wagon leaving Interstate 5 near Oceanside, California. Lopez-Gonzales, the driver, was the only visible person in the vehicle. When the agent pulled out behind the station wagon in a clearly marked border patrol vehicle, the station wagon accelerated rapidly and ran a traffic light. The agent turned on his red light and siren and followed the station wagon as it sped through a residential area at 45 m.p.h., and ran another traffic light and four stop signs. Lopez-Gonzales made a left turn, appeared to lose control of the station wagon, jumped out of the moving vehicle, and left it to roll to a stop at the curb. Lopez-Gonzales and several other illegal aliens, who had been concealed in the vehicle, were apprehended.

At the sentencing hearing which followed Lopez-Gonzales’s bench trial and conviction, the trial court…