United States v. Rodolfo Guitierrez, Jr.

MEMORANDUM

Defendant-Appellant Rodolfo Nicholas Gutierrez, Jr., (“Gutierrez”) pled guilty to one count of bank fraud arising from fraudulent activities at his auto dealership in Billings, Montana. Gutierrez was sentenced to eighty-four months of incarceration followed by five years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay $705,808.96 in restitution. He appeals his sentence and restitution order.

The district court applied a 2-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(10) for the unauthorized and unlawful use of a means of identification to obtain another means of identification based on Gutierrez’s use of a customer’s signature to obtain a loan for his own benefit. Gutierrez asserts that there was no “unauthorized” transfer or use of a means of identification, because the customer signed the loan application for the purpose of securing payment for the vehicle. It is clear from the record, however, that Gutierrez’s use of the loan documents after the customer had paid the full price of the vehicle was unauthorized. The district court’s application of the enhancement was consistent with the application notes in the Sentencing Guidelines. See United States v. Lambert,…