United States v. Alfonso Mendoza-Fernandez

4 F.3d 815 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Alfonso MENDOZA-FERNANDEZ, Defendant-Appellant. No. 92-50761. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted July 15, 1993. Decided Sept. 10, 1993. Patrick N. Smith, Deputy Federal Public Defender, Los Angeles, CA, for defendant-appellant. Edward B. Moreton, Jr., Asst. U.S. Atty., Los Angeles, CA, for plaintiff-appellee. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California. Before: WOOD, Jr., * REINHARDT, and RYMER, Circuit Judges. HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Senior Circuit Judge: 1 Defendant contends the district court misinterpreted the United States Sentencing Commission's Guidelines Manual and applied the wrong guideline. We agree, and for the reasons stated below we vacate Defendant's sentence and remand for resentencing. I. BACKGROUND 2 Not many of us carry around $51,000 in cash, but Alfonso Mendoza-Fernandez was doing so on August 5, 1992. As Fernandez prepared to board a flight to Mexico from the Los Angeles International Airport, he was stopped by an inspector for the United States Customs Service. The inspector was conducting what the government terms "an outbound…