United States v. Maria Contreras-Salas, AKA Maria Brooks

387 F.3d 1095, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 22773, 2004 WL 2495935
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 3, 2004
Docket03-10710
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 387 F.3d 1095 (United States v. Maria Contreras-Salas, AKA Maria Brooks) 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.

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United States v. Maria Contreras-Salas, AKA Maria Brooks, 387 F.3d 1095, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 22773, 2004 WL 2495935 (9th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

FISHER, Circuit Judge.

Maria Contreras-Salas pled guilty in July 2003 to unlawful reentry after deportation in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Sentencing for a violation of § 1326 is governed by § 2L1.2 of the Sentencing Guidelines, which mandates a 16-level increase to the base offense level if the defendant was previously convicted for a felony “crime of violence.” The district court concluded that Contreras-Salas’ pri- or jury conviction in 1987 for “Child Abuse and/or Neglect Causing Substantial Bodily Harm” under Nevada Revised Statutes § 200.508 was a crime of violence, imposed the 16-level increase to the base offense level and sentenced her to 77 months’ imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.

We review the district court’s interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo. United States v. Castillo-Rivera, 244 F.3d 1020, 1021 (9th Cir.2001). We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

Contreras-Salas argues that Nevada’s child abuse statute is overly inclusive and punishes some conduct that does not constitute a “crime of violence.” She further contends that documents the district court relied on — the charging document, the pre-sentence report and the judgment — were insufficient to establish which aspect of the statute her conviction was based upon. Applying this circuit’s “modified categorical approach,” we hold that Contreras-Salas’ conviction does not qualify as a crime of violence and thus reverse the district court’s judgment and vacate her sentence.

I.

Nevada’s child abuse statute at the time of Contreras-Salas’ conviction in 1987 applied to:

*1097 1. Any person who:

(a) Willfully causes a child who is less than 18 years of age to suffer unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering as a result of abuse or neglect or to be placed in a situation where the child may suffer physical pain or mental suffering as the result of abuse or neglect; or
(b) Is responsible for the safety or welfare of a child and who permits or allows that child to suffer unjustifiable physical pain or mental suffering as a result of abuse or neglect or to be placed in a situation where the child may suffer physical pain or mental suffering as the result of abuse or neglect ....

Nev.Rev.Stat. § 200.508 (1987) (emphasis added). 1

The Sentencing Guidelines define a “crime of violence” as “any 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.” U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2, app. n. l(B)(iii). In United States v. Trinidad-Aquino, we held that when a statute “can be violated through negligence alone,” it does not constitute a “crime of violence” for sentencing enhancement purposes. 259 F.3d 1140, 1146 (9th Cir.2001).

In determining whether a prior conviction is a qualifying offense for sentencing enhancement purposes, we apply the categorical approach set forth in Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). See, e.g., United States v. Pimentel-Flores, 339 F.3d 959, 967-68 (9th Cir.2003) (discussing this court’s application of the Taylor analysis to the imposition of various sentencing enhancements in the Guidelines). Under Taylor’s categorical approach, we “look only to the fact of conviction and the statutory definition of the prior offense,” not to the underlying facts. United States v. Corona-Sanchez, 291 F.3d 1201, 1203 (9th Cir.2002) (en banc) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted).

If the statute criminalizes conduct that would not constitute a qualifying offense, we may “look a little further” and “consider whether other documentation and judicially noticeable facts demonstrate that the offense was, indeed, within the Guidelines’ definition.” United States v. Shumate, 329 F.3d 1026, 1029 (9th Cir.2003), amended by 341 F.3d 852 (9th Cir.2003). The purpose of this “modified categorical approach is to determine if the record unequivocally establishes that the defendant was convicted of the generically defined crime, even if the statute defining the crime is overly inclusive.” Corona-Sanchez, 291 F.3d at 1211.

We conclude that the Nevada statute does not criminalize conduct qualifying as a categorical crime of violence because it criminalizes negligent conduct, which does not involve the requisite use of force. In addition, the government concedes that the Nevada statute is overly inclusive. Thus, Contreras-Salas’ conviction must be evaluated under the modified categorical approach.

II.

We have identified a number of different kinds of documentation and judicially noticeable facts that courts may consider under the modified categorical approach when they determine whether a conviction is a predicate conviction for enhancement purposes, “such as the indict *1098 ment, the judgment of conviction, jury instructions, a signed guilty plea, or the transcript from the plea proceedings.” United States v. Rivera-Sanchez, 247 F.3d 905, 908 (9th Cir.2001) (en banc) (quoting United States v. Casarez-Bravo, 181 F.3d 1074, 1077 (9th Cir.1999)). “[I]n the ease of a jury trial, the charging document and jury instructions from the prior offense may demonstrate that the ‘jury was actually required to find all the elements’ of the generic crime.” Corona-Sanchez, 291 F.3d at 1211 (quoting Taylor, 495 U.S. at 602, 110 S.Ct. 2143). In this ease, however, the jury instructions are not in the record — only the charging document and the judgment are in the record.

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387 F.3d 1095, 2004 U.S. App. LEXIS 22773, 2004 WL 2495935, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-maria-contreras-salas-aka-maria-brooks-ca9-2004.