## Facts

- Lopez Quintero was prosecuted in federal court for the killing of his two-year-old daughter on an Indian reservation.
- On the morning of the death, Quintero was outside near his pickup truck with the child and his four-year-old son.
- Quintero claimed the child fell from the truck bed while he was inflating a tire, struck her head, and later died.
- The government contended Quintero chased and repeatedly struck the child; the son was the only eyewitness to the episode.
- After the child became unresponsive, Quintero performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, returned to working outside, and the child soon died.
- Quintero refused to take the child to a hospital, stating fear of being accused of neglect and losing custody of his son.
- Quintero wrapped the body, drove to look for a burial site, then burned the body; the record also reflected removal and burial of the head elsewhere.
- Trial evidence included testimony that Quintero regularly beat the child, that he initially admitted killing her and later offered the fall explanation, and a pathologist’s opinion that death from a truck-bed fall was improbable.

## Issues

1. Whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain a federal voluntary manslaughter conviction, including whether the proof supported a “sudden quarrel or heat of passion” rather than only involuntary manslaughter.
2. When evidence of heat of passion is raised in a federal murder prosecution, whether the government bears the burden to prove the absence of heat of passion to sustain a murder conviction.
3. Whether the district court permissibly and reasonably departed upward from the Sentencing Guidelines based on post-offense conduct involving destruction and concealment of the body.

## Decision

- The Ninth Circuit affirmed the voluntary manslaughter conviction under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1112 and 1153.
- The court held the evidence permitted a rational jury to reject the accident account and find an unlawful killing consistent with voluntary manslaughter.
- The Ninth Circuit vacated the 108-month sentence and remanded for resentencing, concluding the upward-departure analysis was improperly applied and/or insufficiently justified as to extent.

## Legal Principles

- Under 18 U.S.C. §§ 1111–1112, voluntary manslaughter is an unlawful killing without malice “upon a sudden quarrel or heat of passion”; second-degree murder is an unlawful killing with malice but without premeditation.
- Evidence of sudden quarrel or heat of passion operates as a partial defense to a murder charge; once raised, the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the absence of heat of passion to sustain a murder conviction.
- Sufficiency of evidence on appeal is reviewed in the light most favorable to the verdict.
- Sentencing departures are reviewed by assessing (1) whether the factor is legally permissible, (2) whether facts support it, and (3) whether the degree of departure is reasonable; a departure must be tied to permissible factors and adequately explained.

## Conclusion

The Ninth Circuit upheld Quintero’s voluntary manslaughter conviction based on evidence contradicting an accidental-fall explanation, but it vacated and remanded the sentence because the district court’s upward departure for post-offense concealment and destruction of the body was not properly grounded and justified under the Guidelines.


United States v. Quintero, 21 F.3d 885 (9th Cir. 1994)