United States v. Aparicio-Moreira

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit FILED October 19, 2009 No. 09-40055 Summary Calendar Charles R. Fulbruge III Clerk UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ELVIN APARICIO-MOREIRA, Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas No. 2:08-CR-623-ALL Before DAVIS, SMITH, and DENNIS, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:* Elvin Aparicio-Moreira appeals the 41-month sentence imposed following his plea of guilty of illegal reentry into the United States following removal. * Pursuant to 5TH CIR . R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH CIR . R. 47.5.4. No. 09-40055 Aparicio-Moreira challenges the district court’s characterization of his prior Tex- as state conviction of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle (“UUMV”) as an aggra- vated felony. In United States v. Armendariz-Moreno, 571 F.3d 490, 491 (5th Cir 2009) (per curiam), we determined that the offense of UUMV does not involve violent and aggressive conduct and, as a result, is not an aggravated felony. Un- der that precedent, the district court erred in imposing the eight-level sentencing enhancement. Despite the error, reversal is not required. In United States v. Bonilla, 524 F.3d 647, 655-57 (5th Cir. 2008), cert. denied, 129 S. Ct. 904 (2009), this court de- termined that the district court had erred in applying the sentencing guidelines, but we decided that “[n]ot all errors in determining a defendant’s guideline sen- tence require reversal.” We affirmed, reasoning that “because the district court imposed an alternative non-guidelines sentence, the advisory sentence did not result from the guidelines error and we need not vacate the sentence on that ba- sis.” Id. at 659. In the instant case, the district court made it plain that it would have im- posed the same sentence even if the sentencing enhancement had been inapplic- able. The district court’s comments reflect that, like the district court in Bonilla, it imposed an alternative non-guideline sentence. Moreover, the reasons given for the non-guideline sentence are adequate. See United States v. Mares, 402 F.3d 511, 519-20 (5th Cir. 2005). Aparicio-Moreira argues that the district court erred in calculating his criminal history score. Although the government concedes that it was error to assess two points for Aparicio-Moreira’s 1998 conviction of burglary of a vehicle, the government contends that Aparicio-Moreira has not shown plain error. Because Aparicio-Moreira failed to object to the calculation of his criminal history score, review is for plain error. See United States v. Cruz-Meza, 310 F. App’x 634, 636 (5th Cir. 2009), cert. denied, 2009 U.S. LEXIS 5363 (U.S. Oct. 5, 2009); United States v. Villegas, 404 F.3d 355, 358-59 (5th Cir. 2005). Aparicio- 2 No. 09-40055 Moreira has not shown that the court plainly erred in calculating his criminal history score, because he has not demonstrated that the error affected his sub- stantial rights. See Cruz-Meza, 310 F. App’x at 636; Villegas, 404 F.3d at 364. AFFIRMED. 3