United States v. Ellis-Garcia

357 F. App'x 569
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedDecember 15, 2009
Docket08-40519
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 357 F. App'x 569 (United States v. Ellis-Garcia) 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. Ellis-Garcia, 357 F. App'x 569 (5th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

PER CURIAM: *

Carlos Ricardo Ellis-Garcia appeals from a judgment of conviction for being found illegally in the United States following deportation. He alleges error in his sentence. We AFFIRM.

I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Ellis-Garcia is a citizen of Honduras. He was deported from this country first in 2004 and again in 2006. In 2007, he was found in Cameron County, Texas. On September 5, 2007, he pled guilty to being found illegally in the United States following deportation. 8 U.S.C. § 1326. There was no plea agreement. The propriety of his sentence is the question we face.

The U.S. Sentencing Guidelines provide a sixteen-level enhancement for defendants convicted of unlawfully reentering the United States who have a prior conviction for a crime of violence. U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A). The Presentence Report included a recommendation that Ellis-Garcia’s Guidelines offense level be increased sixteen levels because he had, prior to deportation, been convicted of two crimes of violence: (1) a 1994 Montana conviction for felony assault, and (2) a 1997 Georgia conviction for robbery.

Over Ellis-Garcia’s objections, the district court found each prior conviction to *570 be for a crime of violence. The sentence imposed was eighty-two months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release.

On appeal, Ellis-Garcia argues that his sentence should be vacated because neither prior conviction was for a crime of violence.

II. DISCUSSION

Generally, we review the district court’s sentencing decisions for an abuse of discretion. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). Applicable here, we review de novo the characterization of a prior offense as a crime of violence. United States v. Sanchez-Ruedas, 452 F.3d 409, 412 (5th Cir.2006).

Under the Sentencing Guidelines, the offense of unlawfully entering the United States has a base offense level of eight. U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 (a). If the defendant had previously been deported after having committed a crime of violence, there is a sixteen-level increase in his offense level. Id. § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii). The district court found Ellis-Garcia to have two convictions for crimes of violence. The increase by sixteen levels applies even if he had only one. Id.

A prior conviction is for a crime of violence if it satisfies either of two tests: (1) it is one of several listed “offenses under federal, state, or local law,” or (2) it is “any other offense under federal, state, or local law that has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.” Id. § 2L1.2 cmt. l(B)(iii).

To determine whether a prior conviction is for one of the listed offenses (often called “enumerated offenses,” though the Sentencing Guidelines do not number them), we follow a “common sense approach.” Sanchez-Ruedas, 452 F.3d at 412. When there is no definition of the enumerated offense in the enhancement provision, we must give the offense its “generic, contemporary meaning,” without concern for the “labels employed by the various States’ criminal codes.” United States v. Dominguez-Ochoa, 386 F.3d 639, 642-43 (5th Cir.2004) (quoting Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 598, 592, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990)).

For example, even if a prior offense is designated as “robbery” in a state penal code, it may not qualify as a robbery under Section 2L1.2. United States v. Santiesteban-Hernandez, 469 F.3d 376, 378 (5th Cir.2006). In determining the “generic, contemporary meaning,” we look to sources such as the Model Penal Code, certain favored treatises such as Wayne LaFave’s Substantive Criminal Law, dictionaries, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and other indicators of the present understanding of the offense. Id. at 379.

After finding the contemporary and generic elements of a crime, we compare them to the statutory elements of the prior offense and not to the actual conduct underlying the conviction. Id. Statutes may be written to apply to a range of conduct. It is possible that some of the means by which the statutory offense could be committed would fit within the generic, contemporary meaning of the offense and others would not. That does not end the inquiry.

Instead, when there are disjunctive elements in the statutory offense, we may look, but only with judicial blinders on, at a limited array of records in ascertaining the specific part of the statute that is the basis for the conviction. United States v. Moreno-Florean, 542 F.3d 445, 449 (5th Cir.2008). Besides the charging document, we may examine the “written plea agreement, transcript of the plea colloquy, and any explicit factual findings by the trial judge to which the defendant assented.” United *571 States v. Bonilla-Mungia, 422 F.3d 316, 320 (5th Cir.2005) (quoting Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 16, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005)).

As one more option, if these documents do not indicate which subpart of the statute was the basis for the conviction, we consider the entire statute to determine whether the “least culpable act constituting a violation of that statute” qualifies as a crime of violence under Section 2L1.2. United States v. Gonzalez-Ramirez, 477 F.3d 310, 315-16 (5th Cir.2007).

We now apply these principles. One of the enumerated crimes of violence is “aggravated assault.” U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. l(B)(iii). Ellis-Garcia was convicted in Montana of felony assault. The judgment recited that he had “purposely or knowingly caused bodily injury to David Robbenold with the use of a weapon by repeatedly striking him with a metal crutch.” Under the Montana statute in effect at the time of the offense, felony assault occurred when a person purposely or knowingly caused:

(a) bodily injury to another with a weapon;
(b) reasonable apprehension of serious bodily injury in another by use of a weapon; or

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357 F. App'x 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ellis-garcia-ca5-2009.