SupremeToday Landscape Ad
Back
Next
Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation
Listen Article Pause Article
judgment-img

COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
United States v. Hassan-Saleh-Mohamad



              United States Court of Appeals
                     For the First Circuit


No. 18-1883

                    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                            Appellee,

                               v.

                  MOHAMAD HASSAN-SALEH-MOHAMAD,

                      Defendant, Appellant.


          APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
                 FOR THE DISTRICT OF PUERTO RICO

       [Hon. Carmen Consuelo Cerezo, U.S. District Judge]


                             Before

                  Lynch, Thompson, and Kayatta,
                         Circuit Judges.


     José B. Vélez Goveo and Vélez & Vélez Law Office on brief for
appellant.
     Mariana E. Bauzá-Almonte, Assistant United States Attorney,
Chief, Appellate Division, Antonio L. Perez-Alonso, Assistant
United States Attorney, and Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United
States Attorney, on brief for appellee.



                          July 9, 2019
            LYNCH,   Circuit   Judge.        Mohamad   Hassan-Saleh-Mohamad

("Hassan") pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in

violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(5)(B) and (b)(2).                   He now

challenges the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his

within-guidelines sentence of eighty-seven months' imprisonment

and fifteen years' supervised release.                 Finding no abuse of

discretion, we affirm his sentence.

                                      I.

            We recount only the central facts in this section,

providing more detail as necessary in the analysis.               As Hassan's

appeal follows a guilty plea, "we draw the relevant facts from the

plea   agreement,    the   change-of-plea      colloquy,    the    undisputed

portions of the presentence investigation report ('PSR'), and the

transcript of the disposition hearing."          United States v. O'Brien,

870 F.3d 11
, 14 (1st Cir. 2017).

A.     Federal Investigation, Child Pornography Charge, and Plea

            During   a     Federal    Bureau    of     Investigation    (FBI)

investigation into the distribution of child pornography on the

Ares peer-to-peer file-sharing network in November 2016, an FBI

agent identified a computer with a particular Internet Protocol

(IP) address as a potential source of child pornography. The agent

began investigating this computer and downloaded two video files




                                     - 2 -
made available by the targeted computer, both of which contained

child pornography.1

             An     administrative   subpoena   on   the   cable    company

connected to the IP address of that computer returned an address

in Puerto Rico.        The FBI then executed a search, pursuant to a

warrant, of the residence at that address on March 31, 2017, and

interviewed all of the residents, including Hassan.                 In this

interview, Hassan stated that he had used his computer to search

the   Ares   peer-to-peer    network   for   child   pornography    and   had

downloaded about fifty child pornography videos and images in the

past year.        A search of Hassan's hard drive found six images and

335 videos of minors engaged in sexual conduct, including some

featuring sadomasochistic acts and prepubescent minors.

             On April 25, 2018, a criminal information was filed,

charging Hassan with one count of possession of child pornography,

in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252A(a)(5)(B) and (b)(2).            That same

day, Hassan pleaded guilty to this count pursuant to a plea

agreement.        The plea agreement stated a Base Offense Level (BOL)

of eighteen and a number of sentencing adjustments, leading to a

Total Offense Level (TOL) of twenty-five.            The parties did not




      1   The two videos showed: 1) a partially nude female
approximately between the ages of ten and twelve performing oral
sex on a nude adult male; 2) a female approximately between the
ages of fourteen

Click Here to Read the rest of this document
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
SupremeToday Portrait Ad
supreme today icon
whatsapp-icon Back to top