United States v. Torres-Melendez, 28 F.4th 339

In 2018 plainclothes Puerto Rico officers approached a group; Jean Torres-Meléndez fled and tossed a modified Glock (a machine gun) from a stairwell; officers recovered the weapon, loaded magazine, and extra magazines.
Torres pled guilty to illegally possessing a machine gun under 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). No plea agreement.
Sentencing: base offense level 20, three-level reduction for acceptance, combined offense level 17 → Guidelines range 24–30 months.
The district judge varied upward to 60 months, citing Torres’s alleged "track record" of drug and weapons offenses, juvenile adjudications, two adult arrests dismissed on speedy-trial grounds, unemployment, and substance abuse.
Torres appealed, arguing procedural and substantive unreasonableness; the First Circuit reviewed for abuse of discretion and focused on procedural error: the judge impermissibly treated unproven arrests as proof of guilt without corroboration. The sentence was vacated and remanded for resentencing.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument (Torres)	Defendant's Argument (Government)	Held
Whether the district judge may rely on arrests not resulting in convictions in imposing an upward variance	Judge relied improperly on two arrests dismissed without convictions; using arrests as proof of guilt violates precedent	Judge's use was permissible because other information (Torres's admissions of substance use and context) and references to "might" involvement justified the judge's view of a track record	Vacated: sentencing court impermissibly relied on bare arrests as evidence of guilt absent independent corroboration; error requires resentencing
Preservation/plain-error review of the objection to judge's "violent tendencies" comment	Defense preserved the objection at sentencing when counsel protested characterization	Government contended defendant did not preserve and thus only plain-error review applies	Court held the objection was adequate to preserve the claim; no plain-error analysis required
Whether other evidence (Torres's admitted marijuana use or circumstantial facts) cured reliance on arrests	Torres argued those admissions do not corroborate the dismissed arrests and cannot substitute for proof of the charged conduct	Government argued admissions and context supported the judge's finding of a track record and rebutted self-defense claim	Court rejected the contention: admissions about substance use and speculative language do not supply the required corroboration for relying on dismissed arrests

United States v. Díaz-Lugo, 963 F.3d 145 (1st Cir. 2020) (a sentencer may not equate an arrest unaccompanied by conviction with proof of guilt absent corroboration)
United States v. Marrero-Pérez, 914 F.3d 20 (1st Cir. 2019) (proof only of an arrest is no proof of guilt; sentencing reliance on unproven arrests requires independent corroboration)
United States v. Dávila-Bonilla, 968 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 2020) (abuse-of-discretion review of sentencing procedural errors and limits on using mere charges at sentencing)
United States v. Rondón-García, 886 F.3d 14 (1st Cir. 2018) (a judge may not presume dismissed charges reflect prosecutorial or judicial flaws rather than potential defendant culpability)
United States v. Castillo-Torres, 8 F.4th 68 (1st Cir. 2021) (reiterating that unsupported allegations in charges cannot be used as proof of conduct at sentencing)