United States v. Olga Ortega

MEMORANDUM

Defendant Olga Ortega appeals her convictions of three counts of making a false statement in a passport application, in violation of 18 U.S.C. ■§ 1542, and one count of attempted reentry after deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

Ortega challenges her convictions for making a false statement in a passport application for sufficiency of the evidence. Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Government, sufficient evidence supported those convictions, as a rational trier of fact could have found that Ortega “willfully and knowingly,” 18 U.S.C. § 1542 , lied about being a United States citizen. See United States v. Nev ils, 598 F.3d 1158, 1163-64 (9th Cir.2010) (en banc) (a sufficiency of the evidence claim “requires a court of appeals to determine whether after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted) (emphasis in original)). Although the Government lacked direct evidence of Ortega’s state of mind,…