United States v. Morales-Martinez

[NOT FOR PUBLICATION] UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT No. 97-1569 UNITED STATES, Appellee, v. CESAR MORALES-MARTINEZ, Defendant, Appellant. APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO [Hon. Daniel R. Dominguez, U.S. District Judge] Before Torruella, Chief Judge, Stahl and Lynch, Circuit Judges. Jose R. Franco Rivera on brief for appellant. Guillermo Gil, United States Attorney, Jorge E. Vega-Pacheco, Chief, Criminal Division, W. Stephen Muldrow, and Rebecca Kellogg-de Jesus, Assistant United States Attorneys, on brief for appellee. November 5, 1997 Per Curiam. Upon careful review of the briefs and record presented in this appeal, we perceive no error in the weapons adjustment, U.S.S.G. 2D1.1(b)(1), applied in calculating defendant's sentence. That adjustment was adequately supported by the government's version of the facts, to which defendant admitted. Defendant's argument that he did not possess the weapon "in connection with" the drug transaction is unsupported by the appellate record, and we will not disturb the district court's findings in that regard. Further, given the differing circumstances in which defendant and his co-defendant were arrested, charged, and pled, we cannot conclude that the differing sentences imposed upon them amounted to error. Thus we reject defendant's equal protection argument, as well as his argument that he should qualify for safety valve relief because his co- defendant did so. Affirmed. See 1st Cir. Loc. R. 27.1. -2-