United States v. Davis

873 F.3d 343, 2017 WL 4534397, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 19864
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedOctober 11, 2017
Docket16-2059P
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 873 F.3d 343 (United States v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First 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. Davis, 873 F.3d 343, 2017 WL 4534397, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 19864 (1st Cir. 2017).

Opinion

LYNCH, Circuit Judge.

Karim Davis challenges his 151-month prison sentence on appeal, after he pled guilty in 2016 to drug crimes, arguing that the district court erred in (1) sentencing him as a career offender based on his prior drug convictions under N.Y. Penal Law §§ 110 and 220.31; and (2) applying the criminal-livelihood enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(b)(15)(E). There was no error, and we affirm his sentence.

I.

After indictment in 2015, Karim Davis pled guilty in August 2016 to two counts of drug trafficking: (1) possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine base and (2) conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the same, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), and 846. The first count arose from crimes alleged in Davis’s 2015 indictment, and the second, from an information the Government filed in 2016 based on Davis’s alleged conspiracy to distribute drugs from April 2014 to June 2015.

The Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) found Davis responsible for 479 grams of heroin and 31.4 grams of cocaine base. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, this merited a base offense level of 26. The PSR recommended a two-level enhancement because the offense was “part of a pattern of criminal conduct engaged in as a livelihood,” U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(b)(15)(E); and an additional three-level increase for Davis’s leadership role as a manager or a supervisor, id. § 3Bl.l(b). As a result, Davis’s adjusted offense level was 31.

However, the PSR indicated that the career-offender guideline under U.S.S.G. § 4Bl.l(b) governed Davis’s total offense level because he had “at least two prior felony convictions of ... a controlled substance offense.” The report identified his first predicate offense as a criminal sale of a controlled substance, in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31, and his second predicate offense as an attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance, in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 110.

Section 4Bl.l(b) of the Guidelines states that “if the offense level for a career offender from the table in this subsection is greater than the offense level otherwise applicable, the offense level from the table in this subsection shall apply.” It also mandates that “[a] career offender’s criminal history category in every case under this subsection shall be Category VI.”

For Davis’s offense, the career-offender guideline prescribed an offense level of 32. See U.S.S.G. § 4Bl.l(b)(3). Because this was higher than the offense level otherwise applicable—31—Davis received an enhancement for being a career offender. After a three-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility, the PSR recommended a total offense level of 29. Together with a criminal history category of VI, the resulting Guidelines Sentencing Range (GSR) was 151-188 months of imprisonment. See U.S.S.G. ch. 5, pt. A, sentencing table.

At the sentencing hearing, the district court adopted the PSR’s recommendation over Davis’s objections. The judge also found that Davis qualified for the criminal-livelihood enhancement, but emphasized that “the same guideline range would occur regardless of what [he found] on that topic.” Ultimately, the district court sentenced Davis at the bottom of the GSR: 151 months of imprisonment.

II.

On appeal, Davis argues that his two prior drug convictions under New York law do not constitute predicate offenses under the Guidelines career-offender provision, U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. “Whether a prior conviction qualifies as a predicate offense under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 is a question of law that we review de novo.” United States v. Almenas, 553 F.3d 27, 31 (1st Cir. 2009).

Davis’s first argument, that his conviction under N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31 is not a “controlled substance offense” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1, is foreclosed by this Court’s precedent in United States v. Bryant, 571 F.3d 147 (1st Cir. 2009), and United States v. Melvin, 628 Fed.Appx. 774 (1st Cir. 2015). 1

Under the career-offender provision, a “controlled substance offense” includes any offense under state law that “prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance,” or “the possession of a controlled substance” with “intent” to do the same. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b). And under N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31, a person commits a criminal sale in the fifth degree “when he knowingly and unlawfully sells a controlled substance,” which includes “to sell, exchange, give or dispose of to another, or to offer or agree to do the same,” id. § 220.00 (emphasis added). We held in Bryant that a conviction for attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance under § 220.39, qualifies as a career offender predicate. 2 571 F.3d at 157-58; see also Melvin, 628 Fed.Appx. at 776 n.3 & 777. The district court correctly concluded that Davis’s conviction under N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31 qualifies as a predicate for the career-offender enhancement.

Davis’s second argument, that a conviction for attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance under N.Y. Penal Law § 110 does not qualify as a predicate offense, is also meritless. Section 110 provides that “[a] person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime when, with intent to commit a crime, he engages in conduct which tends to effect the commission of such crime.” Although the statutory language is broad, New York courts have narrowly applied it only to conduct that “came ‘dangerously near’ commission of the completed crime.” People v. Kassebaum, 95 N.Y.2d 611, 721 N.Y.S.2d 866, 744 N.E.2d 694, 698 (2001). This standard is more stringent than the Model Penal Code’s “ ‘substantial step’ test.” People v. Acosta, 80 N.Y.2d 665, 593 N.Y.S.2d 978, 609 N.E.2d 518, 521 (1993).

Davis contends that allowing a conviction under N.Y. Penal Law § 110

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Bluebook (online)
873 F.3d 343, 2017 WL 4534397, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 19864, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-davis-ca1-2017.