United States v. Mauricio Chan

United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
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No. 19-1911
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United States of America
lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee
v.
Mauricio Eduardo Bayardo Chan, also known as Amigo, also known as Friend,
also known as Mexico
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the Northern District of Iowa - Dubuque
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Submitted: January 24, 2020
Filed: February 6, 2020
[Unpublished]
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Before SHEPHERD, STRAS, and KOBES, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
Mauricio Chan appeals after he pled guilty to drug and money-laundering
offenses, and the district court1 imposed a 300-month prison term. His counsel filed
a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), suggesting that the district
court erred in applying three Guidelines enhancements.
Even assuming the district court erred in applying the challenged
enhancements, we conclude that any such error was harmless, in light of the court’s
statements at sentencing that Chan’s sentence was independent of the court’s
Guidelines calculations, that the sentence was based on the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)
factors, and that the court believed the same sentence would have been appropriate
even if it had not applied the enhancements. See United States v. LaRoche, 700 F.3d
363, 365 (8th Cir. 2012) (misapplication of Guidelines is harmless if district court
would have imposed same sentence had it not relied on invalid factor); see also
United States v. Davis, 932 F.3d 1150, 1152 (8th Cir. 2019) (declining to address
argument that district court erred in calculating Guidelines, in light of alternative
sentencing determination that rendered issue moot).
Finally, we have independently reviewed the record under Penson v. Ohio, 488
U.S. 75 (1988), and have found no non-frivolous issues. Accordingly, we affirm.
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1
The Honorable Leonard T. Strand, Chief Judge, United States District Court
for the Northern District of Iowa.
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