USA v. RISING SUN
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals today released an opinion in USA v. RISING SUN, No. 06-30614, a criminal appeal. The panel consisted of Betty B. Fletcher, Andrew J. Kleinfeld, and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges.
GOULD, Circuit Judge:
Eugene Rising Sun (”Rising Sun”) appeals two consecutive life sentences which were imposed after he pled guilty to two counts of second-degree murder. He argues that the sentencing court erred in applying the enhancement found at U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1(b)(1) for vulnerable victims because of the remote location where the murders occurred and in applying the enhancement found at U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1 for obstruction of justice because he threatened a witness and tried to destroy evidence before the police investigation began. Rising Sun also argues that the sentence was unreasonable. We have jurisdiction to hear the appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we vacate and remand for resentencing. I Koren Diebert was reported missing on November 22, 2003. Five days later her body, along with that of LaFonda Big Leggins, was found in a ditch off Big Horn County Road 50A in Montana, which is part of the Crow reservation. An autopsy revealed that both young women had died from blunt force trauma to their heads caused by a heavy object. Investigations by law enforcement authorities determined that Diebert and Big Leggins were last seen in the late evening of November 18 in the company of Rising Sun and his two brothers. One witness told investigators that Rising Sun had commented to her that “he had gotten rid of some of his stuff because it was evidence.” Another witness reported seeing, on the morning of November 19, a maroon Corsica parked at an abandoned house on the Crow reservation where the Rising Sun family used to live. A third witness had linked that same car to the murders of Diebert and Big Leggins. The FBI obtained a search warrant for the abandoned house, which was executed on December 5, 2003. In a trash can out. . .