United States v. Francisco MacIas

The appellant, Francisco Macias-Perez, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. Page six of the original presentence report included a statement that the appellant’s common-law wife, Linda Martinez (“Ms. Martinez”), had previously found a cocaine bindle among the appellant’s belongings. Appellant claimed at sentencing that this statement was inaccurate, and Ms. Martinez testified that she had never found such a package of cocaine. The court therefore deleted the disputed fact from page six of the presentence report. However, page eight of the final presentence report includes a probation officer’s assessment of the appellant’s criminal culpability which states in part:

It is obvious from the court’s deletion of the page six reference to Ms. Martinez’s alleged discovery of cocaine that the court did not take the information into account in sentencing the appellant and the failure to delete the same information on page eight was an oversight.

Fed.R.Crim.P. 32(c)(3)(D) requires that if a defendant alleges an inaccuracy in the presentence report, the court must make either a factual finding concerning the…