Opinion
CRIMINAL ACTION NO. 4:19-CR-18
08-19-2019
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. ISAAC ELI VILLEGAS, Defendant.
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Now before the Court is the request for revocation of Defendant's supervised release. After the District Judge referred the matter to this Court for a report and recommendation, the Court conducted a hearing on July 22, 2019, to determine whether Defendant violated his supervised release. Defendant was represented by Roger Haynes. The Government was represented by Maureen Smith.
Isaac Eli Villegas was sentenced on May 24, 2012, before The Honorable Reed O'Connor of the Northern District of Texas after pleading guilty to the offense of Possession with Intent to Distribute a Controlled Substance, a Class C felony. This offense carried a statutory maximum imprisonment term of 20 years. The original guideline imprisonment range, based on a total offense level of 29 and a criminal history category of III, was 108 to 135 months. Isaac Eli Villegas was subsequently sentenced to 84 months imprisonment, based on a judicial variance, followed by a 3-year term of supervised release subject to the standard conditions of release, plus special conditions to include financial disclosure; substance abuse testing and treatment; alcohol abstinence; participate in an evaluation and/or counseling for gambling addiction, and a $100 special assessment. On January 22, 2018, Isaac Eli Villegas completed his period of imprisonment and began service of the supervision term. On January 24, 2019, jurisdiction of this case was transferred to the Eastern District of Texas and assigned to U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone.
On February 14, 2018, a U.S. Probation Officer for the Northern District of Texas executed a Petition for Warrant or Summons for Offender Under Supervision [Dkt. 2, Sealed]. Subsequent to the transfer of jurisdiction referenced supra, on June 25, 2019, the U.S. Probation Officer for the Eastern District of Texas executed a First Amended Petition for Warrant or Summons for Offender Under Supervision [Dkt. 3, Sealed]. U.S. District Judge Marcia A. Crone ordered that the original petition filed in the Northern District, and refiled in the Eastern District, be amended as reflected in the First Amended Petition. The First Amended Petition asserted that Defendant violated four (4) conditions of supervision, as follows: (1) The defendant shall not commit another federal, state, or local crime; (2) The defendant shall not possess illegal controlled substances; (3) The defendant shall refrain from excessive use of alcohol and shall not purchase, possess, use, distribute, or administer any narcotic or other controlled substance or any paraphernalia related to such substances, except as prescribed by a physician; and (4) The defendant shall not associate with any persons engaged in criminal activity, and not associate with any person convicted of a felony unless granted permission to do so by the probation officer.
The First Amended Petition alleges that Defendant committed the following acts: (1), (2), (3) On April 18, 2018, the defendant was indicted in the Eastern District of Texas, Sherman Division, for the offense of Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine, Case No. 4:18CR00066. A First Superseding Indictment was filed on July 11, 2018 and a Second Superseding Indictment was filed on October 10, 2018. The indictment alleges the defendant knowingly and intentionally conspired with others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture of substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine, or 50 grams or more of methamphetamine actual. On January 2, 2019, the defendant entered a plea of guilty to Count 1 in the Second Superseding Indictment; and (4) During an arrest by the Irving, TX, Police Department on February 8, 2018, the defendant was in the company of Pierre Vazquez, who was convicted in the 195th Judicial District of Dallas County, Texas, of Aggravated Assault/Deadly Weapon, Case No. F- 1457291.
Prior to the Government putting on its case, Defendant entered a plea of true to allegations 1 through 4 of the First Amended Petition. Having considered the First Amended Petition and the plea of true to all allegations, the Court finds that Defendant did violate his conditions of supervised release.
Defendant waived his right to allocute before the District Judge and his right to object to the report and recommendation of this Court.
RECOMMENDATION
Pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, the Court recommends that Defendant's supervised release be revoked and that he be committed to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons to be imprisoned for a term of eighteen months, to run consecutively to any term of imprisonment imposed in Case No. 4:18CR00066, with no term of supervised release to follow.
SIGNED this 19th day of August, 2019.
/s/_________
Christine A. Nowak
UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE