An inmate in the Federal Correctional Institution at Loretto has lost his bid to apply earned credits from the prison as a way to reduce his lengthy sentence, according to an opinion issued Friday by the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia.

Saul Pacheco-Mejia, a former resident of Virginia, is serving a 10-year sentence for aiding and abetting the use of a firearm in the furtherance of a drug trafficking crime that resulted in death.

He was sentenced in 2022 after entering a plea in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Virginia.

He is serving his time at FCI Loretto in Cambria County, and while there he earned credits under the federal First Step Act, which requires the Bureau of Prisons “to create or expand programs that will reduce the risk of recidivism by persons convicted of federal offenses,” according to U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith A. Pesto, who presides in the U.S. District Court in Johnstown.

Pacheco-Mejia filed his petition in the Johnstown court and it was reviewed by Pesto.

The magistrate judge explained that often credits earned under the First Step Act can be applied against an inmate’s sentence, but he also stated that “not all inmates who earn (credits) by taking recidivism-reducing programs are eligible to have the (ETCs) applied to their sentences.”

“Persons charged with offenses relating to the unlawful possession or use of a firearm during and in relation to any crime of violence or a drug-trafficking crime makes Pacheco-Majia ineligible to apply First Step Act credits to his sentence,” Pesto determined.

He stated that Pacheco-Mejia, while in Virginia, pleaded guilty to participating in a shooting that involved drugs.

One man died, although Pacheco-Mejia was not the shooter, it was clarified.

But his guilty plea to the charge against him disqualifies him from applying his First Step Credits to reduce his prison time, according to Pesto’s decision.

Pacheco-Mejia appealed the ruling to a panel consisting of Third Circuit judges L. Felipe Restrepo, David J. Porter and Tamika R. Montgomery-Reeves.

The panel confirmed that Pacheco-Mejia’s petition does not raise a substantial question of law.

“The District Court (Pesto) correctly concluded that Pacheco-Mejia is statutorily ineligible to earn time credits because he is serving a sentence relating to unlawful possession or use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime,” according to the Third Circuit opinion.

Pacheco-Mejia cited multiple precedential decisions he believed entitled him to apply his credits to his sentence, but the appeals court opinion stated, “None of them entitles him to relief.”

The federal indictment against Pacheco-Mejia indicated that on Dec. 12, 2011, he and two other individuals, armed with firearms, traveled to Reston, Va., to sell cocaine.

The individual they were selling to attempted to rob them.

The trio chased him from the apartment where they were located.

Pacheco-Mejia was not involved in the subsequent death of the individual.

According to the indictment, the trio eventually fled to Honduras to avoid prosecution.