# United States v. Beleal Garcia-Gonzalez

> Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit · April 17, 2013 · 714 F.3d 306

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9506053

## Case

- **Full name:** UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Beleal GARCIA-GONZALEZ, Defendant-Appellant
- **Court:** Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
- **Decided:** April 17, 2013
- **Citations:** 714 F.3d 306; 2013 WL 1662795
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurring in part by Higginbotham
- **Judges:** Higginbotham, Smith, Elrod
- **Cited by:** 99 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9506053

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- concluding there was no plain error when “[b]oth parties acknowledge[d] that there is no precedent in [this] circuit, or any other circuit,” answering the question at issue
- holding that the defendant “cannot show an error that affected his substantial rights because he would have received the same Guidelines range and sentence”
- stating that oral motion for judgment of acquittal, which falls under Rule 29(a), preserves issue of sufficiency for de novo appellate review
- stating that, when an appellant raises an issue of first impression, this court will “conclude that any error was not plain or obvious.”
- holding that a failure to object to an enhancement results in review for plain error only

## Opinion text

PATRICK E. HIGGINBOTHAM, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part:
I concur in this well-stated opinion except in one respect. I would vacate one of the two alien-harboring convictions for each sister. Given the rule of lenity, I think the multiplicity error was plain error. See United States v. Ogba, 526 F.3d 214, 237-38 (5th Cir.2008).

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9506053. Public record. Not legal advice.
