Alvarez-Martinez
United States v. Alvarez-Martinez
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM *
In this appeal, we find that on the record before it, the district court erred by characterizing Appellant Louis Alvarez-Martinez (“Alvarez-Martinez”) as a career offender within the meaning of United States Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”) § 4B1.1. Accordingly, we vacate his sentence and remand the case to the district court for re-sentencing.
Because the parties are familiar with the facts of this case, we do not recount them here, except as necessary to explain our decision. As discussed below, none of the judicially noticeable documents supplied by the government to the sentencing court demonstrate that Alvarez-Martinez was convicted of importing marijuana across an international border in 1995 when he pled guilty to violating California Health & Safety Code § 11360(a). See United States v. Martinez, 232 F.3d 728, 734-35 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that importation across an international border, as opposed to transportation across a state border or within a state, is required to find a controlled substance offense under U.S.S.G. § 4B1 .2(b)). We do note that the district court did not have Martinez to guide it when it sentenced this defendant.