Opinion
No. 11-50025 D.C. No. 3:10-cr-01258-IEG-1
01-20-2012
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. EVERARDO HERNANDEZ-BELTRAN, Defendant - Appellant.
NOT FOR PUBLICATION
MEMORANDUM
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of California
Irma E. Gonzalez, Chief District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted January 10, 2012
Pasadena, California
Before: KOZINSKI, Chief Judge, REINHARDT and W. FLETCHER, Circuit Judges.
Everardo Hernandez-Beltran entered a conditional plea to one count of knowingly importing a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 952 and 960, reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion to dismiss the indictment due to alleged errors in the grand jury instruction. We affirm.
The district judge did not err in responding "correct" to a prospective grand juror's statement that "something must have happened" prior to an individual's case being presented before the grand jury. The "correct" confirmed that other actors were involved in the criminal process, but did not suggest that the grand jury's determination should in any way be influenced by those actors' determinations. See United States v. Caruto, 663 F.3d 394, 401 (9th Cir. 2011).
We have previously held that the other grand jury instructions that appellant challenges are not constitutionally defective. See id. at 401-02; United States v. Cortez-Rivera, 454 F.3d 1038, 1040-41 (9th Cir. 2006); United States v. Navarro-Vargas, 408 F.3d 1184, 1202-03, 1206-08 (9th Cir. 2005) (en banc).
AFFIRMED.