United States of America v. Brandon Castillo

United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
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No. 25-3144
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United States of America
lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee
v.
Brandon Castillo
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the District of Nebraska - Lincoln
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Submitted: July 22, 2026
Filed: July 27, 2026
[Unpublished]
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Before ERICKSON, GRASZ, and STRAS, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
Brandon Castillo appeals the bottom-of-the-Guidelines-range sentence the
district court1 imposed after he pleaded guilty to an ammunition offense. He argues
1The Honorable Susan M. Bazis, United States District Judge for the District
of Nebraska.

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that the court abused its discretion by denying a downward variance and imposed a
substantively unreasonable sentence.
After careful review, we conclude that the district court neither abused its
discretion by declining to vary downward nor imposed a substantively unreasonable
sentence, as there is no indication that the district court overlooked a relevant factor,
gave significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor, or committed a clear error
of judgment in weighing the relevant factors. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d
455, 461 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (explaining the deferential abuse-of-discretion
standard of review); see also United States v. Dunn, 928 F.3d 688, 694 (8th Cir.
2019) (presuming within-Guidelines-range sentence to be reasonable; reiterating that
a district court neither imposes a substantively unreasonable sentence nor errs in
declining to vary downward when it exercises its wide latitude to allot greater weight
to aggravating circumstances rather than to defendant’s mitigating personal
characteristics); United States v. Gonzalez, 573 F.3d 600, 607 (8th Cir. 2009) (district
court need not engage in mechanical recitation of sentencing factors).
Accordingly, we affirm.
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