Cock and bull story: federal court in San Francisco hears preposterous tale from Honduran dealer
An illegal alien who was “trying to save just eight hundred dollars more before he self-deported to Honduras” to live a law-abiding life had his plans left in tatters when an inconsiderate San Francisco Sheriff’s deputy busted him for selling methamphetamine, a federal court has been told.
Unlucky Wilson Acosta-Zuniga appeared for sentencing today at the city’s federal courthouse after his April 28 2025 arrest, during which he was also found to have cocaine and heroin.
His woes deepened during this morning’s hearing as an incredulous judge surveyed his rap sheet and compared it unfavorably with the 18-month sentence he was being asked to impose.
No-nonsense U.S. District Judge James Donato teed off on prosecution and defense attorneys before throwing out their plea deal – warning that he was instead inclined to impose a minimum of 47 months.
“This defendant has a record that, in my view, makes an 18 month sentence grossly insufficient to protect the public or be in the interests of justice,” said Judge Donato.
Acosta-Zuniga, 54, will return to court next week to decide whether to proceed with sentencing or withdraw his guilty plea to selling drugs and illegal reentry of a deported alien, and go to trial.
Acosta-Zuniga’s decision to depart from his criminal ways comes not a moment too soon. He was on bail at the time of his latest arrest, having been arrested dealing drugs in San Francisco’s Tenderloin district four months previously and released by Superior Court Judge Kenneth Wine after spending four days in jail.
At the time of that arrest, Acosta-Zuniga was also on probation following an earlier conviction for drug dealing for which he received a time-served four-month sentence from San Francisco judiciary.
No San Francisco judge or prosecutor informed federal authorities that Acosta-Zuniga was – quite transparently – an illegal alien, and so he simply continued dealing drugs for another year.
Amid a slew of similar cases, marked by the credulity-straining hard-luck stories spun by foreign convicts in hopes of securing lighter sentences, Acosta-Zuniga’s mitigation memorandum stands out for the sheer preposterousness of the tale the judge was being asked to swallow.
“Mr Acosta-Zuniga first came to the United States in hopes of changing his economic circumstances in his early twenties,” explained his public defender in a sentencing memorandum.
“Unfortunately, Mr Acosta-Zuniga was convicted of selling drugs in San Francisco CA and Portland OR, and of possessing a forged instrument (false documents to work legal jobs) in New York state such that Mr Acosta-Zuniga would never live the American Dream.”
“Although he had received relatively short and probationary sentences for his state charges, [he] received a sentence of 30 months for his first federal offense in 2002.”
“That’s not a heroic record of learning a lesson.”
U.S. District Judge James Donato
Today in courtroom 11 of San Francisco federal courthouse Judge James Donato indicated that he thought proposed sentence was too lenient and asked prosecution and defense attorneys why they thought he should impose it.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eli Cohen told the court that the government was prepared to countenance an 18-month sentence because Acosta-Zuniga accepted responsibility quickly and his office would save considerable resources as a result of not needing to continue the prosecution.
“All you have to do to the U.S. Attorney’s Office is say ‘I’m guilty’ and you get a 30 month haircut?” asked the judge.
“A 30-month haircut for saying ‘I’m guilty’ is disproportionate – much too disproportionate to his offences over a repeated period of time.”
Defense attorney Ana Botello told the court that her client’s previous federal sentences had dissuaded him from returning to the United States for a number of years on each occasion.
“That’s not a heroic record of learning a lesson,” observed Judge Donato.
The judge concluded he would scrap the plea agreement.
“The defendant Mr Acosta-Zuniga has reentered the United States many, many times since the 1990s. He has associated those reentries with selling drugs to U.S citizens on a multiple incident basis.”
“Does the proposed sentence in the ‘C’ plea adequately meet the goals and purposes of sentencing and the interests of justice,” the judge asked himself. “It manifestly doesn’t”.
Donato indicated that 47-months – the floor of the ‘guideline’ sentence range’ – would likely be the mimimum that would be appropriate in the circumstances.
The judge ordered Acosta-Zuniga to return to court next week to either be sentenced or withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial on the charges.
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