United States v. Pedro Santos

MEMORANDUM

Pedro Santos appeals from the 51-month sentence imposed following his guilty-plea conviction for being a deported alien found in the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

The government contends that Santos’s appeal should be dismissed based on the appeal waiver in his plea agreement. Be cause the district court did not discuss the appeal waiver during the change of plea hearing, we decline to enforce it. See United States v. Arellano-Gallegos, 387 F.3d 794, 796-97 (9th Cir.2004).

Santos contends that the district court procedurally erred by failing to explain adequately the sentence imposed, in that it did not specifically explain why it was adopting a 16-level enhancement for Santos’s prior drug trafficking offense. Our precedent does not require the district court to explain why it is adopting the calculations set forth in the Guidelines. Although the district court imposed a 16-level enhancement, it granted a four-level fast track departure, rather than the two-level departure recommended by the government and contemplated by the plea agreement. The district court explained why it was…