United States v. Victor Notrangelo

Notrangelo appeals a Guidelines sentence on his plea of guilty to being an accessory after the fact to theft. He contends: 1) that he was denied due process when the district court found that upward adjustments for obstruction of justice and more than minimal planning were warranted based on information the presentence report derived from testimony of an eyewitness and an informant in the trial of a co-defendant, and 2) that the court erroneously departed upward on the ground that Notrangelo’s criminal history category did not adequately reflect the seriousness of his past criminal conduct. We affirm the upward adjustments, but reverse and remand for resentencing because the judge made no finding that prior sentences outside the applicable period were evidence of misconduct similar to the offense of conviction.

I

Notrangelo was indicted, along with co-defendants Kaleiwahea and Deguair, for theft and damage to property. The charges arose from an automobile break-in at Volcanos National Park in Hawaii. The court granted Notrangelo’s motion for severance.

Notrangelo subsequently agreed to plead guilty to being an accessory after the fact. He admitted that when he discovered that…