United States v. Villarreal ( 2022 )

Case: 21-40555 Document: 00516221931 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/02/2022
United States Court of Appeals
for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
FILED
No. 21-40555 March 2, 2022
Summary Calendar Lyle W. Cayce
Clerk
United States of America,
Plaintiff—Appellee,
versus
Michael Angel Villarreal,
Defendant—Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Texas
USDC No. 5:21-CR-179-2
Before Southwick, Oldham, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam:*
Michael Angel Villarreal appeals his 20-month within-guidelines
sentence of imprisonment following his guilty plea conviction of one count of
conspiracy to transport an illegal alien within the United States and three
*
Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 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opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited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 Circuit Rule 47.5.4.
Case: 21-40555 Document: 00516221931 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/02/2022
No. 21-40555
counts of transporting illegal aliens within the United States for private
financial gain. He argues that his sentence is substantively unreasonable.
Our review is for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Burney, 992
F.3d 398, 399 (5th Cir. 2021). Sentences within the properly calculated
advisory guidelines range, as here, are presumed to be substantively
reasonable, and we will infer from such a sentence that “the district court has
considered all the factors for a fair sentence set forth in the Guidelines.”
United States v. Candia, 454 F.3d 468, 473 (5th Cir. 2006) (internal quotation
marks and citation omitted). Villarreal’s arguments regarding the district
court’s balancing of the sentencing factors and its refusal to grant him a
downward variance fail to rebut the presumption of reasonableness. See
United States v. Koss, 812 F.3d 460, 472 (5th Cir. 2016). He fails to show that
the district court did not account for a factor that should have received
significant weight, gave significant weight to an irrelevant or improper factor,
or committed a clear error of judgment in balancing the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)
factors. See United States v. Smith, 440 F.3d 704, 708 (5th Cir. 2006).
AFFIRMED.
2