United States v. Crews

612 F.3d 1131, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15256, 2010 WL 2872531
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 3, 2010
DocketNo. 09-30183
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 612 F.3d 1131 (United States v. Crews) 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. Crews, 612 F.3d 1131, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15256, 2010 WL 2872531 (9th Cir. 2010).

Opinion

MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:

We address whether a conviction under Oregon’s second-degree assault statute, Or.Rev.Stat. § 163.175(l)(b), is a “crime of violence” under the Sentencing Guidelines’ “residual clause,” U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 4B1.2(a)(2) (2008) (hereinafter U.S.S.G.). We hold that it is, and we affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On February 13, 2009, Uhuru Navanda Crews pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). At sentencing, the district court assigned Crews a base offense level of twenty-four, based on two prior convictions. See U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(2). Pursuant to section 2K2.1(a)(2), a defendant is assigned a base offense level of twenty-four if he has previously sustained “at least two felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” Id.

Crews concedes that his 1998 conviction for delivery of a controlled substance under Oregon Revised Statutes section [1133]*1133475.8401 constitutes a “controlled substance offense.” The district court also determined that Crews’s 1990 conviction under Oregon’s second-degree assault statute, Or.Rev.Stat. § 163.175(l)(b), is a “crime of violence” under Guidelines section 4B1.2(a).2 On appeal, Crews challenges whether second-degree assault, as defined by section 163.175(l)(b), is a “crime of violence.”

JURISDICTION AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We review de novo whether a conviction constitutes a “crime of violence” under the Sentencing Guidelines. United States v. Hermoso-Garcia, 413 F.3d 1085,1089 (9th Cir.2005).

DISCUSSION

Section 2K2.1 of the Guidelines defines “crime of violence” as that term is defined in the career offender Guideline, section 4B1.2. U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1 cmt. n.l. Section 4B1.2, in turn, sets forth three different provisions defining the term “crime of violence.” Id. § 4B1.2(a)(l), (2) & cmt. n.l. The provision Crews focuses on, and that which we find most germane to whether subsection (l)(b) of Oregon’s second-degree assault statute constitutes a “crime of violence,” is Guidelines section 4B1.2(a)(2).3 Section 4B1.2(a)(2) defines a “crime of violence” as:

any offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that ... is burglary of a dwelling, arson, or extortion, involves use of explosives, or otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another.

Id. § 4B1.2(a)(2) (emphasis added). The italicized language is referred to as the “residual clause.”

Crews was convicted under subsection (l)(b) of Oregon’s second-degree assault statute, which punishes “fijntentionally or knowingly eauspng] physical injury to another by means of a deadly or dangerous weapon.” Or.Rev.Stat. § 163.175(l)(b). Second-degree assault in Oregon is a “Class B” felony punishable by a maximum of ten years imprisonment. See Or.Rev.Stat. §§ 161.605, 163.175(2). Therefore, Crews’s prior conviction meets the threshold requirement for a “crime of violence” since it is “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a).

“We use the categorical approach set forth in Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 602, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990), to determine whether a defendant’s prior conviction satisfies the Guidelines [1134]*1134definition of a crime of violence.” United States v. Esparza-Herrera, 557 F.3d 1019, 1022 (9th Cir.2009) (per curiam). Under this approach, “we consider the offense generically, that is to say, we examine it in terms of how the law defines the offense and not in terms of how an individual offender might have committed it on a particular occasion.” Begay v. United States, 553 U.S. 137, 141, 128 S.Ct. 1581, 170 L.Ed.2d 490 (2008). We thus compare the statutory definition of the underlying offense to the Guidelines definition of “crime of violence.” United States v. Carson, 486 F.3d 618, 619-20 (9th Cir.2007) (per curiam). Therefore, we must ask whether “[i]ntentionally or knowingly causing] physical injury to another by means of a deadly or dangerous weapon,” Or.Rev.Stat. § 163.175(l)(b), “otherwise involves conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another,” U.S.S.G. § 4B 1.2(a)(2).

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Begay v. United States sets forth a two-step approach to our inquiry.4 See Begay, 553 U.S. at 141-42, 128 S.Ct. 1581; United States v. Mayer, 560 F.3d 948, 960 (9th Cir.2009) (following Begay’s two-step approach). First, the state offense must involve conduct that presents a serious potential risk of injury. See Begay, 553 U.S. at 141, 128 S.Ct. 1581 (assuming that New Mexico’s DUI statute involved conduct presenting such a risk). Such a showing does not require “that every conceivable factual offense covered by a statute ... necessarily present a serious potential risk of injury.” James, 550 U.S. at 208, 127 S.Ct. 1586 (citing Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez, 549 U.S. 183, 193, 127 S.Ct. 815, 166 L.Ed.2d 683 (2007)). “Rather, the proper inquiry is whether the conduct encompassed by the elements of the offense, in the ordinary case, presents a serious potential risk of injury to another.” Id.

We have little trouble concluding that “[i]ntentionally or knowingly causing] physical injury to another by means of a deadly or dangerous weapon,” clearly presents a serious potential risk of physical injury to another. Oregon law defines both a “dangerous weapon” and a “deadly weapon” as an “instrument ... capable of causing death or serious physical injury.” Or.Rev.Stat. § 161.015(1), (2). In addition, to be convicted under the statute, the state must prove that the defendant in fact caused the victim physical injury. See State v. O’Hara, 152 Or.App. 765, 955 P.2d 313, 315 (1998). Hence, “the statute itself contemplates bodily harm to the victim as [1135]*1135a prerequisite to conviction.” Johnson, 587 F.3d at 211.

Prior to Begay, we concluded our inquiry after addressing only step one.

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Related

United States v. Crews
621 F.3d 849 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)

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Bluebook (online)
612 F.3d 1131, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 15256, 2010 WL 2872531, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-crews-ca9-2010.