United States v. Gabriel Mirabal

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 22-50217

Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. 5:18-cr-00335- v. MWF-

GABRIEL MIRABAL,

OPINION

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California Michael W. Fitzgerald, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted March 5, 2024 Pasadena, California

Filed April 16, 2024

Before: Holly A. Thomas and Roopali H. Desai, Circuit Judges, and James Alan Soto,* District Judge.

Opinion by Judge H.A. Thomas

* The Honorable James Alan Soto, United States District Judge for the District of Arizona, sitting by designation. SUMMARY **

Criminal Law

The panel vacated Gabriel Mirabal’s conviction by jury trial for two counts of assaulting a federal officer resulting in bodily injury, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 111, and remanded for further proceedings. The panel held the district court abused its discretion in excluding the sworn statement of a government attorney as hearsay at Mirabal’s trial because, in a criminal case, the sworn…