United States v. Colon-Cordero, No. 22-1171 (1st Cir. 2024)

In United States v. Colon-Cordero, the First Circuit Court of Appeals addressed the sentencing of Luis Ángel Colón-Cordero, who was convicted of violating his supervised release and charged with new criminal conduct, including firearm possession. The district court had imposed an upwardly variant sentence for the new criminal charges and a maximum term of imprisonment for the supervised release violation, ordering the sentences to run consecutively.

Colón-Cordero appealed, arguing that his sentences were unreasonable. The First Circuit vacated the sentences and remanded the case for resentencing. The appellate court found that the district court had failed to adequately justify the upward variance from the sentencing guidelines for the new criminal conduct, particularly by not sufficiently considering the mitigating impact of Colón-Cordero’s intellectual disability, which was a key argument made by his defense.

Regarding the revocation sentence for violating supervised release, the appeals court determined that the district court had made a clearly erroneous finding when it stated that Colón-Cordero was “constantly engaging in the illegal use of controlled substances.” The record showed that he had only tested positive for drug use twice during the release period, which did not support the district court’s characterization of his drug use as constant. The appellate court concluded that this error might have influenced the sentencing decision.

The case was remanded for resentencing by a different judge, emphasizing the need for accurate fact-finding and thorough consideration of mitigating factors in sentencing decisions.