Free Sentencing Memorandum - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

1 JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender 2 District of Arizona 850 W. Adams, Suite 201 3 Phoenix, Arizona 85007 Telephone: (602) 382-2721 4 Facsimile: (602) 382-2800 5 JEANETTE E. ALVARADO, #016111 Asst. Federal Public Defender 6 Attorney for Defendant [email protected] 7 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 s/ Jeanette E. Alvarado JEANETTE E. ALVARADO Asst. Federal Public Defender Defendant, David Hernandez-Salas, asks that the Court sentence him to a term of 41 months, for the reasons cited in the attached memorandum. Respectfully submitted: April 8, 2008. JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender vs. David Hernandez-Salas, Defendant. United States of America, Plaintiff, No. CR-04-161-PHX-JAT SENTENCING MEMORANDUM

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MEMORANDUM David Hernandez-Salas learned English while completing his last incarceration Also, while

3 sentence. And, though not fluent, Mr. Hernandez-Salas is able to converse in 4 English and has done so extensively with undersigned counsel. 6 G.E.D. 7 Also, Mr. Hernandez-Salas has been gainfully employed both as a heavy 8 equipment operator and as a cook, both in his home country and in the United States. 9 In Mexico, Mr. Hernandez-Salas' earned $15 a day operating heavy machinery, and 10 therefore is employable, as well as has a residence to return to as his family continues 11 to reside in Cuernavaca, Mexico. 12 Mr. Hernandez-Salas is still a young man in his 20s, able to make positive As a young man with skills and a working knowledge of 13 changes for himself. 5 incarcerated, Mr. Hernandez-Salas made good use of his time by obtaining his

14 English, he can make a life for himself back in his home country. He does not want 15 to go in and out of prison. Unfortunately, Mr. Hernandez-Salas did not see the error 16 of his choices until he finished serving two incarceration sentences for offenses 17 involving possession of weapons. It is worth pointing out that though Mr. 18 Hernandez-Salas was convicted of possessing weapons he could not have due to his 19 status as an illegal alien, and later as a felon, there were never any allegations of 20 violence or threatened violence in relation to those cases, or any other case. Counsel 21 mentions this because Mr. Hernandez-Salas has previously been linked with a street 22 gang. Nonetheless, Mr. Hernandez-Salas has never had any arrest or allegations 23 involving violence, and he has now disassociated himself from that organization. 24 26 27 28 2 Mr. Hernandez-Salas' disassociation from that group has gone as far as his 25 getting another tattoo -- of five (5) faces on his chest -- to cover up the letters, "WBP"

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1 previously tattooed there. He did so to cover up that tattoo. Also, the tattoo he had 2 on his arm was also covered up by a subsequent tattoo of an eagle. 3 5 6 8 9 10 Mr. Hernandez-Salas was not offered the standard pre-indictment plea, because Offense Level 17 37 to 46 months. 4 he was on supervised release. If he had, he could have received: Instead he was offered a plea where he would be sentenced at either offense Offense Level 18 Offense Level 19 41 to 51 months 46 to 57 months

7 level 18 or 19. Therefore, Mr. Hernandez-Salas could receive either:

Nonetheless, Mr. Hernandez-Salas did plead quickly. He was indicted on

11 January 8, 2008, and a little over a month later on February 13, 2008, pled guilty. His 12 quick response saves the government valuable resources -- from all parties involved: 13 the court, the prosecution and the defense . 14 Given that Mr. Hernandez-Salas has not served more than two years in prison, 15 for each of his two past convictions; that all his other conviction involved minor 16 offenses of driving on a suspended license or failure to provide identification; that 17 he has no history of violence; that he pled quickly in this instant matter, and will be 18 on supervised release for another three years when released in this case, Mr. 19 Hernandez-Salas asks that the court sentence him to nor more than 46 months, which 20 would be either the high end of offense level 17, the mid range of offense level 18, 21 or the low end of offense level 19. 22 A sentence at nor more than 46 months would a sentence nearly twice as long 23 as either of Mr. Hernandez-Salas' last two sentences, and would be sufficient, but not 24 greater than necessary to achieve the purposes of sentencing. 25 26 27 28 3

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Respectfully submitted: April 8, 2008. JON M. SANDS Federal Public Defender s/ Jeanette E. Alvarado JEANETTE E. ALVARADO Asst. Federal Public Defender

Copy of the foregoing transmitted 7 by ECF this 8th day of April, 2008, to: 8 CLERK'S OFFICE 9 United States District Court Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse 10 401 W. Washington Phoenix, Arizona 85003 11 JAMES KNAPP 12 Assistant U.S. Attorney United States Attorney's Office 13 Two Renaissance Square 40 N. Central Avenue, Suite 1200 14 Phoenix, Arizona 85004-4408 15 Copy mailed to: 16 RICARDO CASTANEDA United States Probation 17 Sandra Day O'Connor Courthouse 401 W. Washington, Suite 160 18 Phoenix, Arizona 85003 19 DAVID HERNANDEZ-SALAS Defendant 20 s/J. Alvarado 21
\sent memo

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