United States v. Jesus Rodriguez

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 21-50108 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 3:20-cr-02911-LAB-

JESUS EZEQUIEL RODRIGUEZ,

Defendant-Appellant. OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Larry A. Burns, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted June 8, 2022 Pasadena, California

Filed August 17, 2022

Before: MILAN D. SMITH, JR., BRIDGET S. BADE, and LAWRENCE VANDYKE, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr.; Concurrence by Judge VanDyke SUMMARY *

Criminal Law

Vacating a sentence and remanding for resentencing in a case in which Jesus Ezequiel Rodriguez was convicted of importing methamphetamine into the United States, the panel held that the district court, which denied Rodriguez a minor-role adjustment under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2(b), erred in analyzing whether to apply the adjustment.

The panel started by correcting two legal errors that appear to have infected all of the district court’s analysis.

First, the district court incorrectly held that Rodriguez’s recruiter’s…