Case Explained: United States of America v. Juan Aldo Beltran Delgado

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Filed: 2026-06-17 The eighth-circuit granted counsel’s motion to withdraw under *Anders v. California* and affirmed the defendant’s below-Guidelines-range sentence following a guilty plea to drug and firearm offenses. The court determined there were no non-frivolous issues for appeal after conducting an independent review of the record pursuant to *Penson v. Ohio*. In its substantive analysis, the court applied the deferential abuse-of-discretion standard established in *United States v. Feemster* to evaluate whether the sentence was substantively unreasonable. The court found that the district court properly considered the factors listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and did not err in weighing them, noting that a mere disagreement with how the district court weighed those factors does not constitute an abuse of discretion under *United States v. McSmith*. Consequently, the judgment of the district court is affirmed, and counsel is permitted to withdraw from representation. Do It For The Case Law is a news reporting service. Nothing in this episode constitutes legal advice.