United States v. Horacio Yuman-Hernandez

Horacio Antonio Yuman-Hernandez appeals his 180-month statutory mandatory-minimum sentence, assigning error to the district court’s rejection of his sentencing entrapment argument. He argued a lack of predisposition to commit an offense involving the amount of cocaine charged, and was thus entrapped. The sentence is affirmed.

I. BACKGROUND

After a bench trial, Yuman-Hernandez was convicted of charges arising from a conspiracy to rob a cocaine stash house and the use of a firearm. As part of a reverse sting operation targeting home-invasion crews, an Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (“ATF”) special agent made contact with the lead defendant in this case, Roberto Ramirez-Ramirez. The agent presented himself as a drug courier that serviced a Los Angeles stash house containing twenty to twenty-five kilograms of cocaine. The night before the invented robbery, Ramirez brought his crew, including Yuman-Hernandez, to meet the agent. The agent essentially repeated the information he had originally presented to Ramirez, and offered the participants, including Yuman-Hernandez, an opportunity to withdraw. The next day, Yuman-Hernan-dez and the others arrived to meet with the agent…