United States v. Aponte-Vellón

HOWARD, Circuit Judge.

After pleading guilty to robbery and brandishing a firearm during a robbery, Cándido Obed Aponte-Vellón (“Aponte”) received consecutive incarcerative sentences of 72 months and 84 months. On appeal, Aponte contends that the district court improperly departed upward from the applicable Guidelines sentencing range. Because Aponte in fact received a sentence that varied from the applicable Guidelines ranges, rather than an upward departure under the Guidelines, and because we discern no plain error in the variance, we affirm.

I

In 2012, Aponte pleaded guilty to both counts of…