Mendoza-Maldonado
United States v. Mendoza-Maldonado
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM **
Ramon Mendoza-Maldonado pled guilty to (1) possession with intent to distribute marijuana and (2) assaulting a federal officer, but he objects to two enhancements imposed at sentencing. We review the district court’s sentence de novo, United *185 States v. Reyes-Pacheco, 248 F.3d 942, 945 (9th Cir.2001), and we affirm.
The district court imposed a victim-related adjustment under U.S.S.G. § 3A1.2, which permits increased penalties when the victim of an assault is a law enforcement officer. When recommending this enhancement, the Presentence Investigation Report cited § 3A1.2’s Advisory Comment 4(A), which did not take effect until after Mendoza-Maldonado’s arrest. Mendoza-Maldonado argues that retroactive application of this Advisory Comment runs afoul of the Ex Post Facto Clause.
The Presentence Investigation Report did erroneously cite the 2002 Sentencing Guidelines instead of the 2001 edition. However, this particular comment was already written into the 2001 Guidelines as Comment 5, and was simply renumbered as 4(A) when the 2002 edition took effect. The language of the two comments is nearly identical. Applying § 3A1.2 to Mendoza-Maldonado pursuant to Comment…