Opinion
No. 1:13-cr-00431-01 WBS
02-08-2021
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. MIGUEL MARQUEZ, Defendant.
ORDER
Defendant has filed a motion for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). (Docket No. 88.)
The government agrees that defendant has exhausted his administrative remedies.
The court recognizes that defendant has various medical conditions, including obesity, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, latent tuberculosis, pre-diabetes, a history of smoking tobacco and methamphetamine, and is housed at USP Lompoc, which has had numerously inmates test positive for COVID-19, including defendant. However, defendant is only 35, and it appears that the Bureau of Prisons has been able to sufficiently treat his medical conditions. Moreover, the defendant has made no showing that he would receive any better care outside of the Bureau of Prisons or that he would be better able to get a COVID-19 vaccination outside of federal custody than he would be in custody.
Defendant also notes that he suffers from a severe undiagnosed pain in his upper right abdomen. While prison medical staff has not yet identified the source of this pain, there is no indication that the condition heightens his risk of complications due to the coronavirus, and it appears that that medical staff is continuing to treat and test defendant for this condition, though those efforts may have been delayed somewhat due to coronavirus protocols.
Overall, defendant has not shown that his medical conditions along with the COVID-19 pandemic qualify as extraordinary and compelling reasons for release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A) and U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13. See United States v. Williams, No. 2:13-cr-383 TLN, 2020 WL 3402439, *2 (E.D. Cal. June 19, 2020) (defendant's confinement at FCI Lompoc and diagnosis of hypertension along with other medical history and prevalence of COVID-19, was insufficient to show extraordinary circumstances under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A)).
Even assuming defendant's medical conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic constituted extraordinary and compelling reasons, the court would deny the motion because defendant has not demonstrated that he is not a danger to the safety of any other person or the community. See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.13(2); United States v. Richardson, No. 2:16-cr-69 TLN, 2020 WL 5203430, at *2 (E.D. Cal. Sept. 1, 2020). In both this case and in defendant's prior offenses, he was responsible for trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine. Given defendant's offense and history, releasing him to live with his mother at the same residence where agents found large quantities of these drugs poses a risk to the community's safety.
Agents also found a stolen loaded gun, which defendant admitted to possessing, at his mother's residence.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that defendant's motion for compassionate release (Docket No. 88), be, and the same hereby is, DENIED. Dated: February 8, 2021
/s/_________
WILLIAM B. SHUBB
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE