United States v. Cordoba-Posos

295 F. App'x 651
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedOctober 7, 2008
Docket07-40893
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 295 F. App'x 651 (United States v. Cordoba-Posos) 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. Cordoba-Posos, 295 F. App'x 651 (5th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

*652 Defendant-appellant Miguel CordobaPosos pleaded guilty to reentering the United States after being removed subsequent to a conviction of an aggravated felony in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. The district court sentenced him to forty-six months of imprisonment, including an enhancement pursuant to section 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual for a previous conviction of a felony crime of violence. Cordoba-Posos appeals his sentence, asserting that the district court erred by concluding that his previous felony conviction of residential burglary under chapter 38, section 19-3 of the Illinois Criminal Code was a conviction of a crime of violence. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

In 1986, Miguel Cordoba-Posos, then known as Miguel Angel Collazo-Barba, was convicted of residential burglary under chapter 38, section 19-3 of the Illinois Criminal Code (“section 19-3” or the “Illinois residential burglary statute”), Ill.Rev. Stat., ch. 38, 1119-3 (1983). 1 The indictment charged that he “knowingly and without authority enter[ed] the dwelling place of Daniel Andrade with the intent to commit therein a theft.” A certified copy of this indictment and a “Statement of Conviction/Disposition,” showing that Cordoba-Posos was found guilty and sentenced on August 28, 1986, are the only record evidence of his state court conviction.

Cordoba-Posos was subsequently removed from the United States on August 9, 1989. After Cordoba-Posos reentered the United States, he was apprehended on March 25, 2007, and charged by indictment with one count of being found in the United States without lawful consent after being removed following a conviction of an aggravated felony in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(2). Cordoba-Posos pleaded guilty.

The presentence report (the “PSR”) assessed a base offense level of eight. Because of Cordoba-Posos’s previous felony conviction under the Illinois residential burglary statute, the PSR recommended a sixteen-level, “crime-of-violence” enhancement under § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) of the 2006 version of United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual (the “Sentencing Guidelines” or “U.S.S.G.”). Crediting Cordoba-Posos three levels for acceptance of responsibility, the PSR calculated a total offense level of twenty-one. Combining that offense level with his criminal history category of III, the PSR calculated a guideline range of forty-six to fifty-seven months of imprisonment.

Cordoba-Posos objected to the PSR. He argued that the court should not apply the sixteen-level enhancement because his conviction under the Illinois residential burglary statute did not qualify as a “burglary of a dwelling,” the relevant crime of violence listed in the commentary to § 2L1.2. See U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n. l(B)(iii). The district court overruled Cordoba-Posos’s objection, applied the enhancement, and sentenced him to forty-six months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release.

Cordoba-Posos filed a timely notice of appeal on September 12, 2007. We exercise jurisdiction over his appeal from the district court’s final judgment of conviction and sentence pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

*653 II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Cordoba-Posos asserts that the sixteen-level enhancement was improper because his previous felony conviction of residential burglary did not qualify as a crime of violence under § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii). First, he argues that the Illinois residential burglary statute in effect at the time of his conviction was applied to burglary of uninhabited structures that do not qualify as “dwellings” within the generic, contemporary meaning of burglary of a dwelling. Second, he argues that chapter 38, section 5-2 of the Illinois Criminal Code (“section 5-2” or the “Illinois accountability statute”), Ill.Rev. Stat., ch. 38, 115-2 (1983), 2 held defendants accountable for the principal offense for soliciting, agreeing to aid another person in the planning of, or mere approving presence during the principal offense, which is more inclusive than the generic, contemporary meaning of criminal liability, as construed according to the federal law.

Where, as here, the defendant objects at sentencing to the district court’s interpretation or application of the Sentencing Guidelines, thus preserving the issue for appeal, we review de novo. See United States v. Cisneros-Gutierrez, 517 F.3d 751, 764 (5th Cir.2008); United States v. Juarez-Duarte, 513 F.3d 204, 211 (5th Cir. 2008) (per curiam); United States v. Santiesteban-Hernandez, 469 F.3d 376, 378 (5th Cir.2006).

Section 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) provides a sixteen-level enhancement to a defendant’s base offense level when that defendant was previously removed subsequent to a conviction of a crime of violence. 3 Application note one of the commentary to § 2L1.2 defines “burglary of a dwelling” as a qualifying crime of violence. 4 U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n. l(B)(iii). Moreover, application note five provides that “[pjrior convictions of offenses counted under subsection (b)(1) include the offenses of aiding and abetting, conspiring, and attempting, to commit such offenses.” U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n. 5. Thus, the Sentencing Guidelines are consistent with the modern trend that “treats aiders and abettors during and before the crime the same way it treats principals.” Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez, 549 U.S. 183, 190, 127 S.Ct. 815, 166 L.Ed.2d 683 (2007); see also 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) (creating liability as a principal for whoever “aids, abets, counsels, commands, induces or procures” commission of an offense (the “federal aider and abettor law”)).

To determine whether a conviction under the Illinois residential burglary statute constitutes a conviction of burglary of a dwelling, we employ the categorical approach developed by the Supreme Court in Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). See United States v. Carbajal-Diaz, 508 F.3d 804, 807 (5th Cir.2007).

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