Case Explained: United States of America Plaintiff— v. Aurelio Quintanilla, Jr Defendant—

Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Filed: 2026-07-07

The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment of conviction and sentence against Aurelio Quintanilla, Jr. The court held that Quintanilla’s valid appellate waiver, entered into as part of a plea agreement for transporting child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(1), barred his challenges to the terms of imprisonment and supervised release. Regarding his claim that the district court misled him about appellate rights during the change-of-plea colloquy, the court applied a plain error standard and found no clear or obvious error; the court’s generic statement that appeal rights might exist “under some circumstances” accurately reflected the waiver’s exception for ineffective assistance of counsel claims and did not contradict the written agreement. On the issue of restitution, the court applied the standard of review for plain error under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 52(b) and the causation framework established in *Paroline v. United States*. The court determined that the district court conducted the required proximate-cause inquiry by considering the Presentence Report, victim restitution requests, and victim-impact statements before ordering $17,500 in combined restitution. Because the record demonstrated a completed inquiry rather than a failure to conduct one, and because Quintanilla failed to show that any alleged error affected his substantial rights or seriously affected the fairness of judicial proceedings, the challenge failed. As a practical consequence, Quintanilla’s conviction and sentence, including the 240-month prison term, lifetime supervised release, and restitution order, remain in effect without modification or remand.

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