United States v. Aguila-Montes De Oca

553 F.3d 1229, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 1275, 2009 WL 115727
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 20, 2009
Docket05-50170
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 553 F.3d 1229 (United States v. Aguila-Montes De Oca) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Aguila-Montes De Oca, 553 F.3d 1229, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 1275, 2009 WL 115727 (9th Cir. 2009).

Opinions

ORDER

The defendant-appellant’s petition for rehearing, filed May 27, 2008, is GRANTED.

Judge Gould dissents and would deny the petition for rehearing.

The Opinion previously filed April 28, 2008, and published at 523 F.3d 1071, is withdrawn, and the Opinion filed with this Order is filed in its stead.

OPINION

THOMPSON, Senior Circuit Judge:

Guillermo Aguila-Montes De Oca (“Aguila-Montes”) appeals the sentence imposed upon him for attempting to reenter the United States following deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Aguila-Montes challenges the district court’s sixteen-level sentence enhancement resulting from the court’s determination that his prior conviction for first degree residential burglary, in violation of section 459 of the California Penal Code, constituted a crime of violence under section 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (“Guidelines”).1 We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a). We conclude that Aguila-Montes’s prior California burglary conviction did not constitute a crime of violence under the Guidelines, and remand to the district court to impose a sentence without that sixteen-level enhancement.

I. Background

Aguila-Montes, a Mexican citizen, queued up at the San Ysidro Point of Entry on July 5, 2004. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested him after verifying by computer that he was a deported alien. The government charged him with violating 8 U.S.C. § 1326 by attempting to reenter the United States. A jury convicted him, and the district court sentenced him to 120 months in prison and two years of supervised release.

During sentencing, the district court determined that Aguila-Montes had previ[1232]*1232ously been convicted of a crime of violence as defined by section 2L1.2 of the Guidelines, and for that reason enhanced his sentence sixteen levels. The prior conviction was from 1988, when Aguila-Montes pleaded guilty to first degree residential burglary in violation of section 459 of the California Penal Code. Aguila-Montes argues that because this 1988 state conviction could have been based upon criminal liability for conduct not included within the definition of burglary of a dwelling in section 2L1.2 of the Guidelines, the district court erred in applying the sixteen-level sentence enhancement. We agree.2

II. Discussion

A Legal Framework

Section 2L1.2 of the Guidelines addresses sentencing for the crime of unlawfully entering or remaining in the United States. It provides sentencing enhancements based on prior convictions for other offenses. Subsection (b)(1) lists the predicate offenses and their corresponding enhancements. It provides a sixteen-level enhancement for a prior “crime of violence.” U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) (2006). The Guidelines’ application notes specifically state that “burglary of a dwelling” constitutes a crime of violence. Id. § 2L1.2 cmt. n. 1(B)(iii).

Aguila-Montes disputes the district court’s determination that his 1988 California conviction for first degree residential burglary constituted burglary of a dwelling, a crime of violence under the Guidelines.

“The sentencing judge’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines, including whether a prior conviction is a ‘crime of violence’ ... for the purposes of U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2, is reviewed de novo.” United States v. Rodriguez-Rodriguez, 393 F.3d 849, 856 (9th Cir.2005) (citing United States v. Bonilla-Montenegro, 331 F.3d 1047, 1049 (9th Cir.2003)). To determine whether Aguila-Montes’s prior conviction qualifies as burglary of a dwelling under the Guidelines, we use the analytical approach outlined in Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). See United States v. Wenner, 351 F.3d 969, 972 (9th Cir.2003) (citing United States v. Becker, 919 F.2d 568, 570 (9th Cir.1990)).

A Taylor analysis requires a comparison between the defendant’s prior conviction (in this case, California residential burglary) and the offense incorporated into the Guidelines (burglary of a dwelling); if the elements of the two match, sentencing enhancement is proper. See id.

Using the categorical approach, we determine whether all convictions under California’s residential burglary statute constitute burglary of a dwelling under the Guidelines. See id. Using the modified categorical approach, we additionally consider “the ‘charging document, written plea agreement, transcript of plea colloquy, and any explicit factual finding by the trial judge to which the defendant assented.’ ” See United States v. Almazan-Becerra, 482 F.3d 1085, 1088(9th Cir.2007) (quoting Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 16, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005)); Wenner, 351 F.3d at 972. We may also consider “comparable” judicial records, such as a court clerk’s appropriate minute order. See United States v. Snellenberger, 548 F.3d 699, 701-702 (9th Cir. 2008), citing Shepard, 544 U.S. at 26, 125 S.Ct. 1254.

Because burglary of a dwelling under the Guidelines is the object of comparison in both approaches, its definition is critical [1233]*1233to the analysis. See United States v. Corona-Sanchez, 291 F.3d 1201, 1204 (9th Cir. 2002) (en banc).

As a starting point in defining burglary of a dwelling, we know that the Guidelines do not simply incorporate the convicting state’s formulation of that offense. See id. at 1205 (citing Taylor, 495 U.S. at 590-91, 110 S.Ct. 2143). Instead, “when Congress described predicate offenses, it meant to incorporate ‘the generic sense in which the term is now used in the criminal codes of most States.’ ” Id. (quoting Taylor, 495 U.S. at 598, 110 S.Ct. 2143).

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553 F.3d 1229, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 1275, 2009 WL 115727, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-aguila-montes-de-oca-ca9-2009.