United States v. Bonilla

524 F.3d 647, 2008 WL 963405
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 16, 2008
Docket06-40894
StatusPublished
Cited by173 cases

This text of 524 F.3d 647 (United States v. Bonilla) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Bonilla, 524 F.3d 647, 2008 WL 963405 (5th Cir. 2008).

Opinions

W. EUGENE DAVIS, Circuit Judge:

Carlos Constantino Bonilla (“Bonilla”) pleaded guilty to being unlawfully present in the United States after deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. The district court sentenced Bonilla to serve forty-one months in prison, followed by a three-year term of supervised release. Bonilla contends that the district court erred in adjusting his base offense level upward based upon his prior conviction for attempted manslaughter under New York Penal Law § 125.15. Bonilla also challenges the presumption of reasonableness that attaches to a sentence within a properly calculated guidelines range; and he challenges the constitutionality of § 1326(b)’s treatment of prior felony and aggravated felony convictions as sentencing factors. These latter two arguments are foreclosed by Supreme Court precedent.1 Although the district court erred in applying the crime of violence enhancement, because it imposed a reasonable alternative non-guideline sentence, we affirm.

I

Bonilla pleaded guilty to his § 1326 offense of illegal reentry without the benefit of a plea agreement. The presentence investigation report (“PSR”) calculated a base offense level of eight pursuant to U.S. SENTENCING GüIDELINES MANUAL (“USSG”) § 2L1.2(a) (2005). The PSR recommended adding sixteen levels under USSG § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) because Bonilla’s New York conviction for attempted manslaughter qualified as a “crime of violence.” The PSR then recommended subtracting three levels for acceptance of responsibility under USSG § 3El.l(a) and (b). A total offense level of twenty-one, coupled with Bonilla’s criminal history category of II, resulted in a recommended imprisonment range of forty-one to fifty-one months.

Bonilla lodged objections to the PSR. First, Bonilla objected to the sixteen-level enhancement on the ground that the government had not carried its burden of showing that his prior conviction for attempted manslaughter qualified as a crime of violence under § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii). The PSR reveals that the crime occurred while the defendant was homeless, and he became embroiled in a fight over mattress space; he struck the victim over the head with a cinder block causing his death. Bonilla’s attempted manslaughter conviction arose from his 1998 violation of § 125.15. Section 125.15 provides that:

A person is guilty of manslaughter in the second degree when:
1. He recklessly causes the death of another person; or
2. He commits upon a female an abortional act which causes her death, [651]*651unless such abortional act is justifiable pursuant to subdivision three of section 125.05; or2
3. He intentionally causes or aids another person to commit suicide.

N.Y. Penal Law § 125.15 (McKinney 2008). As proof of the conviction, the probation officer submitted the New York criminal information that originally charged Bonilla with committing second-degree manslaughter. There is no evidence that Bonilla was reindicted for the attempt charge. The probation officer also submitted the Certificate of Disposition (“COD”), which is a state record of the defendant’s offense of conviction. The criminal information charged Bonilla with manslaughter in the second degree based on a violation of Section 125.15(1). However, the COD noted only that Bonilla pleaded guilty to attempted manslaughter in the second degree under § 125.15 without identifying the subsection under which Bonilla pleaded guilty. Bonilla contended that the COD did not establish the subdivision he violated and that the criminal information could not be used to establish that fact, as it did not charge the attempt crime to which Bonilla eventually pleaded. Because no particular subdivision could be identified, Bonilla argued that § 125.15 must be analyzed as a whole to determine whether it fits within the guidelines’ definition as a crime of violence. He claimed that when analyzed as such, the statute did not fit within the generic, contemporary definition of manslaughter.

Bonilla raised further objections to the PSR that mirror his remaining arguments on appeal.3 At sentencing, Bonilla reurged these objections but the district court overruled them. The district court found that Bonilla’s violation of Section 125.15 qualified under the guidelines as an enumerated offense of manslaughter, and thus as a crime of violence. The court sentenced Bonilla to a non-guideline sentence of forty-one months in prison, followed by a three-year term of supervised release, and a $100 mandatory assessment. Bonilla timely filed a notice of appeal.

II

Bonilla’s first objection is that the district court erred in applying the crime of violence enhancement to determine his guideline sentence. Determining whether a prior offense qualifies as a crime of violence requires interpretation and application of the sentencing guidelines. We review a district court’s interpretation and application of the guidelines de novo. See United States v. Vargas-Duran, 356 F.3d 598, 602 (5th Cir.2004) (en banc) (review[652]*652ing de novo a district court’s application of USSG § 2L1.2).

The application notes of USSG § 2L1.2 define a “crime of violence” in two different ways. A crime of violence either “(1) has the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another as an element of the offense, or (2) it qualifies as one of several specifically enumerated offenses [including manslaughter].” United States v. Murillo-Lopez, 444 F.3d 337, 339 (5th Cir.2006) (citing USSG § 2L1.2 cmt. n. l(B)(iii)). Attempts can trigger a crime of violence enhancement. See USSG § 2L1.2 cmt. n. 5 (stating that “[p]rior convictions of offenses counted under subsection (b)(1) include the offenses of aiding and abetting, conspiring, and attempting, to commit such offenses”). In this case, the government argues only that Bonilla’s offense under § 125.15 qualifies as the enumerated offense of “manslaughter.” See USSG § 2L1.2 cmt. n. l(B)(iii) (stating that “[c]rime of violence means any of the following ... manslaughter”). The parties dispute how specifically we can define the offense committed by Bonilla, as well as the documents we may use to make such a determination.

A

The New York law at issue here provides three separate subsections, each of which independently constitutes manslaughter in the second degree. To determine which subpart formed the basis of Bonilla’s conviction, we may examine, “the statutory definition, 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. Mungia-Portillo, 484 F.3d 813, 815 (5th Cir.2007) (quoting Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 16, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005)).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Kinzy
Fifth Circuit, 2023
Irma Ovalles v. United States
Eleventh Circuit, 2018
United States v. Latroy Burris
896 F.3d 320 (Fifth Circuit, 2018)
United States v. Joseph Pronnette, Jr.
688 F. App'x 268 (Fifth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Juan Linares-Briceno
687 F. App'x 385 (Fifth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Juan Castillo-Rivera
853 F.3d 218 (Fifth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Don Shepherd
848 F.3d 425 (Fifth Circuit, 2017)
United States v. Cesar Bernel-Aveja
844 F.3d 206 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Eduardo Penaloza-Carlon
842 F.3d 863 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Victor Hernandez-Montes
831 F.3d 284 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Ronald Hernandez
647 F. App'x 426 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Dekerion Lewis
643 F. App'x 398 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. David Hernandez-Borjas
641 F. App'x 367 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Kenny Washington
626 F. App'x 485 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Mark Hebert
813 F.3d 551 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Christian Lira-Alvarez
618 F. App'x 234 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Leslie Hofman
615 F. App'x 234 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Jose Sanchez-Sanchez
779 F.3d 300 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Juan Garcia-Perez
779 F.3d 278 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
524 F.3d 647, 2008 WL 963405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-bonilla-ca5-2008.