Castano

United States v. Castano

Good Law
73 F. App'x 303
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth CircuitAugust 20, 2003No. 03-50016; D.C. No. CR-02-01554-BTMCalifornia270 words

Opinion

Lead Opinion

MEMORANDUM **

Eutiquio Castaño, Jr., appeals his 63-month sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to two counts of bank robbery and one count of attempted bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113 (a). We have jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 . We review the district court’s interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo and its findings of facts at sentencing for clear error, see United States v. France, 57 F.3d 865, 866 (9th Cir.1995), and we affirm.

Castaño contends that his demand note stating, “You have five seconds after reading this. Don’t do anything stupid and neither one of us will get hurt. Am Armed!!!” was not sufficiently threatening to warrant a two-level upward enhancement for a “threat of death” under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(2)(F). We disagree.

The district court did not clearly err in finding that victims could have reasonably interpreted the note as constituting a threat of death if they failed to comply with Castano’s demands. See U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1, cmt. n. 6 (2002) (“[T]he intent of this provision is to provide an increased offense level for cases in which the offender(s) engaged in conduct that would instill in a reasonable person, who is a victim…

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