United States v. Manuel Cabrera Padilla

561 F. App'x 890
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedApril 1, 2014
Docket13-13033
StatusUnpublished

This text of 561 F. App'x 890 (United States v. Manuel Cabrera Padilla) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Manuel Cabrera Padilla, 561 F. App'x 890 (11th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Manuel Cabrera Padilla appeals his 77-month sentence after pleading guilty to one count of illegal reentry after deportation, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b)(1). On appeal, Padilla argues that the district court erred by: (i) imposing a sentence that did not correspond with the offense charged in the indictment or adjudicated at his plea hearing; (ii) applying a 16-point enhancement after erroneously determining a prior conviction for burglary of an unoccupied dwelling was a “crime of violence,” and (iii) imposing a sentence that was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. We shall review each of these claims in turn.

I.

Padilla argues for the first time on appeal that the court constructively amended his indictment and imposed a judgment and sentence for an offense different from the one charged in the indictment and adjudicated at the plea hearing. He contends that the Fifth Amendment was violated when he was charged and adjudicated under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(1), which prescribed a ten-year maximum for illegal reentry following a non-aggravated felony conviction, but given a final judgment list *892 ing 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(2), which provides a 20-year maximum for illegal reentry following an aggravated felony conviction.

A district court’s unobjected-to constructive amendment of a defendant’s indictment is reviewed for plain error. United States v. Madden, 733 F.3d 1314, 1316 (11th Cir.2013). Under that standard, if the error is plain and affects substantial rights, we have the discretionary authority to provide relief if the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings. United States v. Olano, 507 U.S. 725, 732, 113 S.Ct. 1770, 1776, 123 L.Ed.2d 508 (1993).

A constructive amendment “occurs when the essential elements of the offense contained in the indictment are altered to broaden the possible bases for conviction beyond what is contained in the indictment.” United States v. Keller, 916 F.2d 628, 634 (11th Cir.1990). Such an amendment constitutes reversible error because it “violates a defendant’s Fifth Amendment right to be tried only on charges presented by a grand jury and creates the possibility that the defendant may have been convicted on grounds that the indictment did not allege.” United States v. Behety, 32 F.3d 503, 508 (11th Cir.1994). However, if the erroneous entry of the judgment results from a clerical error, we may remand for the limited purpose of correcting the error, as long as the correction of the judgment would not prejudice the defendant in any reversible way. United States v. Diaz, 190 F.3d 1247, 1252 (11th Cir.1999); see also Fed.R.Crim.P. 36 (“[T]he court may at any time correct a clerical error in a judgment, order, or other part of the record, or correct an error in the record arising from oversight or omission.”).

Under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), any alien who has been deported and is later found in the United States without permission is subject to imprisonment for up to two years. 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). The penalty for that provision increases to a maximum of ten years if the prior deportation was subsequent to a non-aggravated felony conviction. 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(1). The maximum sentence becomes 20 years if the prior deportation occurred after conviction for an aggravated felony. 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(2).

Listing 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b)(2) as the applicable penalty provision on the judgment did not alter the elements of Padilla’s offense. In Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224, 118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350 (1998), the Supreme Court held that 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b) is merely a penalty provision, and does not lay out elements of an offense. Id. at 231, 118 S.Ct. at 1225. Because 8 U.S.C. § 1326(b) does not contain elements of an offense, citing the wrong provision did not constitute a constructive amendment. Padilla’s indictment listed 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), he pled guilty to violating that statute, and the judgment listed the provision as well, meaning he was adjudicated using the same elements as his indictment and plea. Thus, the discrepancy constituted a clerical error, not a constructive amendment.

Furthermore, even if the error were to be deemed a constructive amendment, it still did not rise to the level of plain error. The alteration from the indictment to the judgment increased the possible statutory maximum from 10 years to 20 years. Padilla received a sentence well below the original ten-year maximum, so he cannot show the change had any effect on his substantial rights.

In the past, we have remanded cases for the limited purpose of permitting the district court to correct clerical errors. See, e.g., United States v. Anderton, 136 F.3d 747, 751 (11th Cir.1998) (remanding with directions to correct an error where the *893 statute cited in the judgment and commitment order was incorrect); United States v. James, 642 F.3d 1333, 1343 (11th Cir.2011) (remanding to correct a judgment citing incorrect statutory subsection). That is the appropriate remedy here.

In sum, there was no error, plain or otherwise, requiring us to completely vacate Padilla’s custodial sentence, but a remand is warranted for the limited purpose of altering the judgment to reflect the correct penalty provision.

II.

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Related

United States v. Anderton
136 F.3d 747 (Eleventh Circuit, 1998)
United States v. Diaz
190 F.3d 1247 (Eleventh Circuit, 1999)
United States v. Henry Affit Lejarde-Rada
319 F.3d 1288 (Eleventh Circuit, 2003)
United States v. John Kevin Talley
431 F.3d 784 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Robert Eckhardt
466 F.3d 938 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Pugh
515 F.3d 1179 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Gonzalez
550 F.3d 1319 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Olano
507 U.S. 725 (Supreme Court, 1993)
Almendarez-Torres v. United States
523 U.S. 224 (Supreme Court, 1998)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Irey
612 F.3d 1160 (Eleventh Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Pantle
637 F.3d 1172 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
United States v. James
642 F.3d 1333 (Eleventh Circuit, 2011)
Descamps v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2276 (Supreme Court, 2013)
United States v. Kenneth Lamar Madden
733 F.3d 1314 (Eleventh Circuit, 2013)

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Bluebook (online)
561 F. App'x 890, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-manuel-cabrera-padilla-ca11-2014.