Opinion
The panel unanimously finds this case suitable for decision without oral argument. See Fed. R.App. P. 34(a)(2).
NOT FOR PUBLICATION. (See Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure Rule 36-3)
After entering guilty plea, defendant was convicted in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Richard A. Paez, J., of unlawful reentry following deportation. Defendant appealed, challenging his sentence. The Court of Appeals held that defendant's prior aggravated felony conviction, which had led to his deportation, could properly be used to enhance sentence.
Affirmed.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Richard A. Paez, District Judge, Presiding.
Before LEAVY, THOMAS, and RAWLINSON, Circuit Judges.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit except as may be provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
Saeb Abdel Majid Dabbas appeals the judgment of conviction and his 37 month sentence following his guilty plea to unlawful
Page 520.
reentry of a deported alien. Dabbas contends that in light of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), the district court improperly imposed a sentence in excess of the two-year maximum set forth in 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) because the government neither pled in the indictment nor established through the guilty plea that Dabbas had been deported subsequent to a prior conviction for an aggravated felony. Dabbas also contends that Apprendi renders inapplicable Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998) (holding that 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(2) is a sentencing factor and not a separate offense). These arguments are foreclosed by United States v. Pacheco-Zepeda, 234 F.3d 411 (9th Cir.2000), amended (Feb.8, 2001) (order).
AFFIRMED.