United States v. Aguila-Montes De Oca

Procedural entryThis page is a short order in United States v. Aguila-Montes De Oca. Read the opinion of the Court — 655 F.3d 915
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided January 20, 2009·No. 05-50170·Published

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  No. 05-50170 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. v.  CR-04-02175-RTB GUILLERMO AGUILA-MONTES DE ORDER AND OCA, OPINION Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California Roger T. Benitez, District Judge, Presiding

Argued February 9, 2006 Submitted February 29, 2008 Pasadena, California

Filed January 20, 2009

Before: David R. Thompson, Thomas G. Nelson, and Ronald M. Gould, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Thompson; Dissent by Judge Gould

749 UNITED STATES v. AGUILA-MONTES 751

COUNSEL

Vincent J. Brunkow, San Diego, California, for the appellant.

Steven E. Stone, Assistant United States Attorney, San Diego, California, for the appellee.

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The Opinion previously filed April 28, 2008, and published at 523 F.3d 1071, is withdrawn, and the Opinion filed with this Order is filed in its stead. 752 UNITED STATES v. AGUILA-MONTES OPINION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 resi- dential 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 enhance- ment.

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 1 Although Aguila-Montes also raised a constitutional challenge to his sentence, and appealed the underlying conviction, this opinion addresses only the district court’s decision to apply the sixteen-level sentence enhancement. We considered Aguila-Montes’s other appellate arguments in a separate memorandum disposition filed April 28, 2008. UNITED STATES v. AGUILA-MONTES 753 Aguila-Montes had previously 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 sec- tion 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 vio- lence under the Guidelines.

“The sentencing judge’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines, including whether a prior conviction is a ‘crime 2 We do not consider Aguila-Montes’s argument that his 1988 state con- viction should not be considered because it could have been based upon aider and abettor liability. 754 UNITED STATES v. AGUILA-MONTES 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 qual- ifies as burglary of a dwelling under the Guidelines, we use the analytical approach outlined in Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575 (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 residen- tial 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 con- sider “the ‘charging document, written plea agreement, tran- script 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 (2005)); Wenner, 351 F.3d at 972. We may also consider “comparable” judicial records, such as a court clerk’s appro- priate minute order. See United States v. Snellenberger, 548 F.3d 699, 701-702 (9th Cir. 2008), citing Shepard, 544 U.S. at 26.

Because burglary of a dwelling under the Guidelines is the object of comparison in both approaches, its definition is criti- cal to the analysis. See United States v.

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United States v. Aguila-Montes De Oca
523 F.3d 1071 (Ninth Circuit, 2008)