United States v. Ricardo Gastelum-Almeida

Ricardo Gastelum-Almeida held up a van that was smuggling aliens from Mexico to the United States, ejected the smugglers, and extorted fees from the aliens. He appeals his conviction and sentence for the charges related to these events and his status as an illegal alien found in the country following deportation. We affirm.

Gastelum-Almeida chose to go to trial on the six counts of the second superseding indictment:

Gastelum-Almeida filed an ex parte application for a competency hearing, which the court granted. At the March 2001 competency hearing, the court was presented -with the report of the defendant’s expert, Dr. Manuel St. Martin, and three reports from the court-appointed expert, Dr. Ihle. The court accepted the experts’ reports as their direct testimony and then allowed for cross-examination. The court found Gastelum-Almeida competent to stand trial.

In April 2001, after a four-day jury trial, Gastelum-Almeida was found guilty on all six counts of the second superseding indictment. The court sentenced him to 210 months.

I. Competency to Stand Trial

A. Standard of Review

A district court’s determination that a defendant is competent to stand trial is…