Free Sentencing Memorandum - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

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PAUL K. CHARLTON United States Attorney District of Arizona LISA JENNIS SETTEL Assistant U.S. Attorney Two Renaissance Square 40 North Central, Suite 1200 Phoenix, Arizona 85004-4408 Telephone (602) 514-7500 [email protected]

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF ARIZONA United States of America, CR-04-860-004-PHX-ROS Plaintiff, v. Jose Parra-Mariscal, Defendant. Plaintiff, United States of America, by and through its attorneys, PAUL K. JOINT SENTENCING MEMORANDUM

15 CHARLTON, United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, and Lisa Jennis Settel, 16 Assistant United States Attorney, and the defendant through his attorney, Hermilio Iniguez, 17 respectfully submit this Joint Sentencing Memorandum, requesting that this court accept the 18 plea agreement in this matter. 19 This defendant was charged in a four count Superseding Indictment. The Superseding 20 Indictment charges hostage taking, conspiracy to take hostage, both counts pursuant to 18 21 U.S.C. Section 1203(a), and harboring illegal aliens and conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens, 22 both counts pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section 1324(a). While the government takes the position 23 that it can prove all charges in the superseding indictment against the defendant, both the 24 government and the defendant agree that his conduct in this case was more akin to 18 U.S.C. 25 Section 924(c), brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence with that crime of violence 26 being hostage taking. Both Section 924(c) and 18 U.S.C. Section 1203(a) carry the same 27 statutory maximum sentence but only the former section carries a mandatory minimum 28 sentence of seven years.

Case 2:04-cr-00860-ROS

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The defendant's role in the hostage taking was that of a guard, a person who used a

2 weapon to intimidate the aliens so that they would not leave the house before they paid their 3 fee. There is no evidence that he planned the harboring or that he even made any phone calls 4 to collect the smuggling fee. The other six defendants in this case have already been 5 sentenced according to their roles. Three defendants, whose roles were mainly that of 6 guides, pled to Informations charging them with bringing aliens into the United States 7 pursuant to 8 U.S.C. Section 1324(a)(2)(B)(ii). Two defendants, whose roles had to do with 8 the actual harboring, i.e. making phone cases, collecting money etc., pled to count 1 of the 9 Superseding Indictment which charged Conspiracy to Harbor Illegal Aliens. The remaining 10 defendant who is similarly situated to Defendant Parra-Mariscal and who used a rifle to 11 intimidate pled to an Amended Information charging section 924(c) and received a sentence 12 of 90 months. 13 The plea agreement in this case is within the advisory sentencing guidelines. If the

14 defendant was convicted of hostage taking charges, his exact guideline calculation is 15 unknown since there are many possible upward adjustments. What is known, is there is a 16 possibility of a life sentence just as there is for a 924(c) offense. The latter offense is in line 17 with the defendant's conduct in this matter. Also in the interests of sentencing parity, it is the 18 position of the government and the defendant, that this court accept the plea agreement. 19 20 21 22 s/ Lisa J. Settel 23 24 25 __s/ Hermilio Iñiguez____________ HERMILIO IÑIGUEZ 26 Attorney for Defendant Parra-Mariscal 27 28 2 LISA JENNIS SETTEL Assistant U.S. Attorney PAUL K. CHARLTON United States Attorney District of Arizona Respectfully submitted this 26th day of September, 2005.

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I hereby certify that on the 26th day of September, 2005, I electronically 2 transmitted the attached document to the Clerk's Office using the CM/ECF System for filing and transmittal of a Notice of Electronic Filing to the 3 following CM/ECF registrants: Hermilio Iniguez 4 I hereby certify that on 26th day of September, 2005, I served the attached document by facsimile on the following who are not registered participants of the CM/ECF System: 5 Guillermo A. Pena 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 3

Case 2:04-cr-00860-ROS

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