United States v. Israel Ornelas
Opinion
Opinion
Tymkovich, J.
ORDER
The court’s opinion filed May 4, 2016, and appearing at 820 F.3d 1100 (9th Cir. 2016), is hereby amended. An amended opinion is filed concurrently with this order.
With these amendments, the panel has voted to deny the petition for panel rehearing. The full court has been advised of the petition for rehearing en banc, and no judge of the court has requested a vote on en banc rehearing. See Fed. R. App. P. 35(f). The petition for panel rehearing and the petition for rehearing en banc are DENIED. No future petitions for panel rehearing or petitions for rehearing en banc will be entertained.
OPINION
Federal law gives defendants the right to be present at their trials and sentenc-ings unless they voluntarily waive this right. In this case, after signing a plea agreement admitting to drug distribution, but before sentencing, Israel Ornelas disappeared and lost contact with his lawyer. The district court proceeded with sentencing in absentia and imposed a prison term of 120 months — the mandatory minimum for the charged crimes.
Ornelas was subsequently arrested and now claims the district court’s sentencing without his presence violated both the Federal Rules of Criminal…