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Seven-Year-Plus Sentence for Man, 80, Affirmed
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A sentence of seven years and three months in prison was not excessive in the case of a man sentenced last year, at age 80, after he pled guilty to racketeering charges stemming from a scheme to launder drug trafficking proceeds, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided yesterday.
Pablo Hernandez, a Mexican national, was sentenced on Jan. 20, 2021, by District Court Judge Otis D. Wright II. He had pled guilty the previous November to conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
A panel comprised of Ninth Circuit Judges Eric D. Miller and John B. Owens, along with District Court Judge Dana L. Christensen of the District of Montana, sitting by designation, said in yesterday’s memorandum opinion, that Wright “did not clearly err in finding by a preponderance of the evidence that Hernandez intended a $2 million loss” and that this justified a steep “loss enhancement.”
Rejecting Hernandez’s contention that Wright did not fulfill his sentencing obligations, the panel said the District Court “noted the factual considerations…that it found most salient, including Hernandez’s likely history of money laundering, his advanced age, and the threat that Covid-19 would pose to Hernandez in the prison environment, and “then imposed a sentence at the lower end” of the sentencing guidelines range.
“This is enough, on plain error review, to conclude that the court satisfied its obligations…,” the judges declared.
The case is United States v. Hernandez, 21-50016.
Hernandez was one of 16 defendants implicated in a massive scheme.
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