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March 18, 2026 Get Citation Alerts Download PDF Add Note

United States v. Francisco Siaca Melendez

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

• Citations: None known
• Docket Number: 25-12086
• Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

• Nature of Suit: NEW

• Opinion

• Authorities (3)

• Cited By (0)

• Summaries (0)

• Similar Cases (13.3K)

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Combined Opinion

USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 1 of 9

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit

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No. 25-12086
Non-Argument Calendar

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus

FRANCISCO SIACA MELENDEZ,
Defendant-Appellant.

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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
D.C. Docket No. 6:18-cr-00176-RBD-DCI-1

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Before LUCK, LAGOA, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Francisco Siaca Melendez was given an upward variance
sentence of 24 months’ imprisonment for violating probation. He
appeals the sentence as procedurally unreasonable. We affirm.
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 2 of 9

2 Opinion of the Court 25-12086

I.
In October 2018, Siaca Melendez pleaded guilty in federal
court to three counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. For
that, he was sentenced to three years’ probation, to run from
March 4, 2019, to March 3, 2022. On February 18, 2022, Siaca
Melendez was arrested and charged in Florida state court for ten
counts of possession of child pornography. He pleaded nolo con-
tendere and was adjudicated guilty. The state court sentenced him
to eleven years in state prison.
Because Siaca Melendez possessed the child pornography
during his probation, the United States Probation Office petitioned
the federal court to revoke the probation. It noted ten violations of
probation in its petition, one for each conviction.
At the probation revocation hearing, Siaca Melendez admit-
ted to each violation. The Court then stated that Siaca Melendez
had a criminal history category of I and that his Guidelines’ impris-
onment range for the violations was 4 to 10 months. 1 After con-
firming that Siaca Melendez was intelligently, freely, and voluntar-
ily admitting to the violations, the Court accepted his admissions
and found that he violated his probation. The Court summarized
the violations as “new conviction[s] for . . . possession of sexual
performance by a child.” It then asked the parties for their argu-
ments as to the appropriate disposition.

1 The statutory maximum prison term was 10 years as that was the maximum

prison term for each of Siaca Melendez’s three original firearm counts.
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 3 of 9

25-12086 Opinion of the Court 3

The Government requested the Court impose a 24-month
prison term, to run concurrent with Siaca Melendez’s state sen-
tence. It emphasized that the most important condition of super-
vised release is following the law and that Siaca Melendez “broke
[that condition] in an extraordinary heinous manner,” demonstrat-
ing his complete disrespect for the law, the orders of the Court, and
the victims of crimes. It characterized each video as “a monument,
a memorial to horrific violence that [is] inflicted on children” and
stated that the children are revictimized each time the videos are
viewed. It also asked the Court to consider that it had given Siaca
Melendez a “chance” by sentencing him to probation for the fire-
arm offenses and that these violations were his response to that
chance.
Siaca Melendez requested a sentence at the low end of the
Guidelines range, to run concurrent with his state sentence, and to
be followed by no supervision. He argued that his probation term
was almost over when he violated it, meaning he largely demon-
strated respect for the Court and the law. He also stated that his
criminal history showed only four criminal convictions, which oc-
curred when he was much younger, and that he pleaded guilty in
state court to the child porn offenses without a plea agreement. He
also noted that he was currently serving an 11-year prison sentence
for the state charges and maintained that a low-end sentence would
reflect the seriousness of his offense and adequately deter further
criminal conduct.
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 4 of 9

4 Opinion of the Court 25-12086

The Court then asked what terms and conditions were
placed on Siaca Melendez in state court, “[t]his being a child sex
offense in state court.” It specifically asked if Siaca Melendez had to
register as a sex offender and if any constraints were placed on his
internet access. It explained that it wanted to ensure an internet
restriction was in place; if one was, it would not duplicate it, but if
one were not, it would be inclined to impose supervised release
with the restriction.
The Court then stated that it had reviewed 18 U.S.C. §§ 3551
and 3553 and that it had considered all § 3553(a) factors. It revoked
Siaca Melendez’s supervised release and imposed 24-month prison
terms for Counts 1, 2, and 3. The terms were to run concurrent to
each other but consecutive to the 11-year prison term imposed by
the state court. The Court explained that Siaca Melendez’s viola-
tions “constitute a breach of trust with respect to his underlying
offense” and, thus, warrant a sentence consecutive to his state sen-
tence. The Court also imposed a 12-month term of supervised re-
lease, with restricted internet access, to be served upon Siaca
Melendez’s release from prison. Neither party objected to the sen-
tence or the manner in which it was imposed. Siaca Melendez now
timely appeals, arguing that his sentence was procedurally unrea-
sonable because the Court did not specifically explain why it varied
his sentence upward from the Guidelines range.
II.
We review unpreserved claims of error for plain error.
United States v. Presendieu, 880 F.3d 1228, 1237 (11th Cir. 2018). “To
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 5 of 9

25-12086 Opinion of the Court 5

establish plain error, a defendant must show: (1) an error; (2) that
was obvious; (3) that affected the defendant’s substantial rights; and
(4) that seriously affected the fairness, integrity, or public reputa-
tion of judicial proceedings.” United States v. Dudley, 5 F.4th 1249,
1255 (11th Cir. 2021).
If a defendant violates a condition of probation, the district
court may, after a hearing and consideration of the § 3553(a) fac-
tors 2 to the extent that they are applicable, continue the defendant
on probation or revoke probation and resentence him. 18 U.S.C.
§ 3565 (a). The sentence should sanction primarily the defendant’s
“breach of trust” for failing to abide by the conditions of the court-
ordered supervision, while also accounting for, “to a limited de-
gree, the seriousness of the underlying violation and the criminal
history of the violator.” U.S.S.G. Ch. 7, Pt. A(3)(b). And if a district
court imposes a sentence that is outside the defendant’s calculated
Guidelines range, it must state the reasons for the variance both in
open court and in a statement of reasons form. 18 U.S.C.
§ 3553 (c)(2).
However, “a Section 3553(c) error does not affect a defend-
ant’s substantial rights if the record is clear enough to allow mean-
ingful appellate review of the sentence.” United States v. Steiger, 99

2 In fashioning a defendant’s sentence, the Court is to consider “the nature and

circumstances of the offense”; “the history and characteristics of the defend-
ant”; the seriousness of the offense; promoting respect for the law; providing
just punishment; deterring criminal conduct; protecting the public; and
providing the defendant with needed treatment, training, and medical care. 18
U.S.C. § 3553 (a).
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 6 of 9

6 Opinion of the Court 25- 12086

F.4th 1316, 1325 (11th Cir. 2024). And it does not seriously affect
the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings
if the record is clear enough that the sentence does not appear “se-
cretive and arbitrary.” Id. In other words, “a Section 3553(c) error
warrants reversal under plain error review only when the district
court’s reasoning is unclear on the face of the record.” Id. Specifi-
cally, where “[a] reasonable person familiar with the sentencing
record” would understand the reasons for the imposition of an
above-Guidelines sentence, there is no reversible error. Id. at 1326.
And we have found that standard met where the discussion at the
hearing was “dedicated almost exclusively” to one thing. Id. at
1320, 1326.
Here, the Court did not provide specific reasons for its up-
ward variance sentence in open court or in a statement of reasons
form. It therefore erred, and its error was obvious. 18 U.S.C.
§ 3553 (c)(2); see also United States v. Corbett, 921 F.3d 1032, 1037
(11th Cir. 2019) (explaining that an error is obvious if a statute, rule,
or binding court precedent directly resolves it).
However, its error did not affect Siaca Melendez’s substan-
tial rights as it was clear on the face of the record that his above-
Guidelines sentence was based on the serious criminal conduct he
engaged in while on probation. Siaca Melendez argues this is not
the case because “the parties touched on multiple reasons for their
sentencing requests.” We disagree.
At the outset, we note that though the parties did reference
other topics at sentencing, many of those references were made to
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 7 of 9

25-12086 Opinion of the Court 7

frame the seriousness of Siaca Melendez’s crime. For example, the
Government stated that “this conduct demonstrates a complete
disregard for the law.” Siaca Melendez suggests that this statement
concerns promoting respect for the law, but it’s clear that it is
meant to emphasize the seriousness of his conduct. And Siaca
Melendez’s own mention of his state court sentence was not an in-
dependent argument but was instead part of Siaca Melendez’s de-
scription of “what the state court believed was the seriousness of
the offense.”
Regardless, the important consideration here is whether the
Court’s reasoning was clear from the record, not whether the par-
ties gave more than one reason in their sentence requests. See Stei-
ger, 99 F.4th at 1325. Though the fact that the hearing’s discussion
focused on a limited number of topics can support that the Court’s
reasoning was clear, it is not required for such determination. For,
though our affirmance in Steiger was “made relatively simple” by
the facts of the case, “most cases will not be so easy. In run of the
mill cases—where many different facts and arguments may be in
play at sentencing—analyzing the substantial rights prong of the
plain error analysis may not be as straightforward.” Id. at 1327 (Jor-
dan, J., concurring).
Here, the Court’s questioning at the hearing focused on
whether the state court imposed the appropriate conditions on Si-
aca Melendez. Though the Court stated that the answers would
inform whether it would impose an internet restriction on super-
vised release, the questions themselves reflected the seriousness
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 8 of 9

8 Opinion of the Court 25-12086

with which the Court viewed the criminal conduct. Indeed, its con-
cern was whether the proper constraints were in place “in light of
the underlying offense.”
The Court also concluded that Siaca Melendez’s violation of
supervised release “constitute[d] a breach of trust with respect to
the underlying offense.” Though the Court explicitly stated that
this breach warranted a sentence consecutive to the sentence im-
posed by the state court, that does not prevent it from also being a
reason for the upward variance. Indeed, the specific reference to a
consecutive sentence shows that the Court focused on the under-
lying offense for the length of the sentence it imposed. The Court’s
statement, as above, showed the seriousness with which the Court
viewed Siaca Melendez’s conduct.3
The Court’s reason for imposing an upward variance was
clear from the record, meaning the Court’s error did not affect Si-
aca Melendez’s substantial rights. His argument fails under the
third prong of plain error review.
We caution, as the concurrence in Steiger did before us, that
“[w]e do not provide a benchmark today on when a district court’s
reasoning is [clear or] unclear on the face of the record” as such an
inquiry is “going to be fact-specific and subject to a case-by-case ad-
judication.” 99 F.4th at 1328 (Jordan, J., concurring). We simply

3 We also reject Siaca Melendez’s contention that conduct must rise to an

“egregious” level to qualify as a reason for an upward variance that can be
clear from the record. Our inquiry concerns the content of the hearing, not
the facts of the violation. See Steiger, 99 F.4th at 1325.
USCA11 Case: 25-12086 Document: 40-1 Date Filed: 03/18/2026 Page: 9 of 9

25-12086 Opinion of the Court 9

find that, on the record in this case, the Court’s reasoning for the
upward variance was clear, and “[a] remand in this circumstance
would be a wasteful formality for the district court to state on the
record what everyone already knows.” Id. at 1327.
III.
The sentence imposed by the District Court was procedur-
ally reasonable. We, therefore, affirm.
AFFIRMED.