United States v. Carlo Streat

22 F.3d 109, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 8964, 1994 WL 149849
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 28, 1994
Docket93-3646
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 22 F.3d 109 (United States v. Carlo Streat) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Carlo Streat, 22 F.3d 109, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 8964, 1994 WL 149849 (6th Cir. 1994).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Carlo Streat appeals his sentencing after pleading guilty to charges of unarmed robbery of a bank in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). The first issue on appeal is whether the district court incorrectly calculated the criminal history category used to determine Streat’s sentencing range under the United States Sentencing Guidelines. The second issue concerns Streat’s motion for a downward departure from the applicable sentencing range because he suffers from AIDS. Streat argues that the district court erroneously concluded that AIDS is no ground for a downward departure. The government counters that the sentencing judge was aware of her authority to depart but exercised her discretion and chose not to do so. We conclude that the district court improperly calculated Streat’s criminal history category and that this case should be remanded for resentencing. Upon remand, the district court will have the opportunity to appropriately address Streat’s claim that his illness warrants a downward departure.

I. The Criminal History Calculation

A. Application Note 11 to U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2

The presentenee report prepared for Streat’s sentencing shows a criminal history of seven previous convictions. Streat agrees that the report properly valued four of these convictions at one point each, but disputes the district court’s determination that the other three convictions should be valued at two points each.

The three prior convictions pertinent to this appeal all were entered on February 19, 1991 for three separate drug offenses which occurred on August 31, 1990, September 7, 1990, and December 7,1990. Streat received the same sentence in each case: one year in custody, suspended, and two years’ probation, with all three sentences to be served concurrently.

Had matters remained as they were immediately after Streat’s February 19, 1991 sentencing, Streat would have received one criminal history point for each of these three sentences and four one-point sentences for the four convictions not pertinent to this appeal. U.S.S.G. § 4Al.l(c). He accordingly would have received the maximum of four points permitted under section 4Al.l(c). On May 8,1992, however, Streat was found to be in violation of probation, and was sentenced to one year’s incarceration for each of the three pertinent convictions, each sentence to be served concurrently. The question here is how this May 8, 1992 probation revocation affects Streat’s criminal history calculation.

The district court calculated Streat’s criminal history by adding a one-year sentence to each of the three original sentences. That is, the district court counted the May 8, 1992 probation revocation as three separate sentences of one year each. Under section 4Al.l(b), each of these one-year sentences warrants two criminal history points, producing a six-point increase in Streat’s criminal history score. Streat claims that adding one year to each of the three sentences is error. He argues that a proper reading of the sentencing guidelines requires that the one-year prison term imposed on May 8, 1992 should only have been added to one of the three *111 convictions, not to all three. We agree with Streat.

Section 4A1.2(k) of the sentencing guidelines addresses the consequences of revocations of probation or parole. That provision states in pertinent part:

(1) In the case of a prior revocation of probation, parole, supervised release, special parole, or mandatory release, add the original term of imprisonment to any term of imprisonment imposed upon revocation. The resulting total is used to compute the criminal history points for § 4Al.l(a), (b), or (c), as applicable.

U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2(k). The dispute here is whether the court should “add the original term of imprisonment to any term of imprisonment imposed upon revocation” for each of the three prior sentences or only for one of the three sentences. A plain reading of the second paragraph of application note 11 to section 4A1.2 supplies the answer:

Where a revocation applies to multiple sentences, and such sentences are counted separately under § 4A1.2(a)(2), add the term of imprisonment imposed upon revocation to the sentence that will result in the greatest increase in criminal history points. Example: A defendant was serving two probationary sentences, each counted separately under § 4A1.2(a)(2); probation was revoked on both sentences as a result of the same violation conduct; and the defendant was sentenced to a total of 45 days of imprisonment. If one sentence had been a “straight” probationary sentence and the other had been a probationary sentence that had required service of 15 days imprisonment, the revocation term of imprisonment (45 days) would be added to the probationary sentence that had the 15-day term of imprisonment. This would result in a total of 2 criminal history points under § 4Al.l(b) (for the combined 60-day term of imprisonment) and 1 criminal history point under § 4Al.l(e) (for the other probationary sentence).

The example in application note 11 is precisely on point: Streat was serving multiple probationary sentences at the time that his probation was revoked; probation was revoked on these sentences for the same “violation conduct”; and he was sentenced to a total of one year in prison. The one year accordingly should be added to the sentence which results “in the greatest increase in criminal history points.” In Streat’s case, the three sentences are all the same — one year, suspended — so the sentencing court can tack the probation revocation sentence to any one of them. The other two sentences, like the “straight” probationary sentence in the example, remain unaffected.

The government does not directly discuss the paragraph from note 11 quoted above. It instead argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected this same argument under similar facts in United States v. Smith, 905 F.2d 1296 (9th Cir.1990). In Smith, like here, the defendant argued that note 11 to section 4A1.2 required the district court to treat the revocation of probation as a single offense. Id. at 1302-03. The Ninth Circuit rejected this argument and upheld the district court’s determination that the sentence meted out for violating probation should be tacked on to each of the prior convictions. Id.

While the government correctly describes the holding in Smith, it fails to recognize that the paragraph from note 11 discussed above was added on November 1, 1991 — after Smith was decided. U.S.S.GApp. C, amend. 381. As the Ninth Circuit recently acknowledged in an unpublished opinion, “[t]his amendment adds a new method for calculating sentences” that simply is inconsistent with Smith. United States v. Reed, No. 91-10203,1992 WL 167983, at *5,1992 U.S.App. LEXIS 17758, at *13 (9th Cir. July 20,1992). Under the amended note 11, the one-year sentence is tacked on to only one of the prior convictions.

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Bluebook (online)
22 F.3d 109, 1994 U.S. App. LEXIS 8964, 1994 WL 149849, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-carlo-streat-ca6-1994.