United States v. Munoz-Ortenza

563 F.3d 112, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6166, 2009 WL 693146
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedMarch 18, 2009
Docket07-51344
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 563 F.3d 112 (United States v. Munoz-Ortenza) 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. Munoz-Ortenza, 563 F.3d 112, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6166, 2009 WL 693146 (5th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

JENNIFER W. ELROD, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Ernesto MunozOrtenza pleaded guilty to illegal reentry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326, and appeals his sentence of forty-one months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release based in part on a sixteen-level enhancement that resulted from Munoz-Ortenza’s previous criminal conviction in California for oral copulation of a minor. We vacate and remand for resentencing.

I. BACKGROUND

On August 16, 2007, Munoz-Ortenza pleaded guilty to a single-count indictment for illegal reentry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) as enhanced by § 1326(b). The probation officer assessed a sixteen-level enhancement under U.S. Sentencing Commission Guideline Manual (U.S.S.G.) § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A) because Munoz-Ortenza had been deported to Mexico following a 2001 conviction in California for oral copulation of a minor in violation of California Penal Code § 288a(b)(l). Munoz-Ortenza had pleaded guilty on January 21, 2001 to this offense. 1

Munoz-Ortenza objected to the enhancement, arguing that his prior conviction was not a “crime of violence” under the Guidelines, which include “sexual abuse of a minor” as an enumerated category in the definition of a crime of violence. See U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n.l(B)(iii). MunozOrtenza claimed that the California statute was overbroad because it criminalized consensual conduct in cases where one party was under eighteen. Based on our decision in United States v. Izaguirre-Flores, 405 F.3d 270 (5th Cir.2005), the probation officer reasoned that a common-sense approach to defining “sexual abuse of a mi *114 nor” would categorically include oral copulation with a person under eighteen.

The district court agreed with the probation officer, overruling Munoz-Ortenza’s objection, and sentencing him to forty-one months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Munoz-Ortenza timely appealed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

We review the district court’s characterization of a defendant’s prior conviction de novo. United States v. Balder-as-Rubio, 499 F.3d 470, 472 (5th Cir.2007), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 128 S.Ct. 1304, 170 L.Ed.2d 123 (2008). When a defendant does not raise the issue in the district court, we review for plain error. See United States v. Infante, 404 F.3d 376, 394 (5th Cir.2005). We find plain error when we find a clear and obvious error that affected the defendant’s substantial rights, and then we may exercise our discretion to correct the error only if “the error seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” Id.

B. Sexual Abuse of a Minor

Under the Guidelines, an alien convicted of illegal reentry under 8 U.S.C. § 1326 is subject to a sixteen-level enhancement if he was previously deported after committing a “crime of violence.” § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii). The comments define “crime of violence” to include “sexual abuse of a minor.” § 2L1.2 cmt. n.l(B)(iii). We use a common-sense approach to determine if a prior conviction is categorically an enumerated offense, deciding whether an offense is sexual abuse of a minor according to its ordinary, contemporary and common meaning. Izaguirre-Flores, 405 F.3d at 274-75; see United States v. Dominguez-Ochoa, 386 F.3d 639, 642-43 (5th Cir.2004) (“Taylor instructs that where, as here, the enhancement provision does not specifically define the enumerated offense, we must define it according to its ‘generic, contemporary meaning’ and should rely on a uniform definition, regardless of the ‘labels employed by the various States’ criminal codes.’ ” (quoting Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 592, 598, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990))). We ground this analysis in the statute of conviction rather than the defendant’s specific conduct. United States v. Najera-Najera, 519 F.3d 509, 511 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 129 S.Ct. 139, 172 L.Ed.2d 105 (2008). “If the statute of conviction is overly broad, we may also examine certain adjudicative records to determine whether the prior conviction qualifies as an enumerated offense.” United States v. Murillo-Lopez, 444 F.3d 337, 339-40 (5th Cir.2006).

Munoz-Ortenza argues that a Taylor analysis of California Penal Code § 288a(b)(l) yields the conclusion that the statute criminalizes conduct not within the generic category of sexual abuse of a minor. Specifically, the California statute includes all persons under eighteen within its ambit, whereas most states, according to Munoz-Ortenza, limit the application of such statutes to persons under sixteen or seventeen. Munoz-Ortenza did not raise this argument below. In the district court, he argued that the California statute improperly criminalizes consensual conduct. For this reason, we review his definition-of-a-minor argument for plain error. See Infante, 404 F.3d at 394.

Munoz-Ortenza’s claims that the California statute is overbroad because it defines “minor” as anyone under eighteen, whereas the common definition of “minor” for purposes of defining “sexual abuse” is a person under sixteen or seventeen. In United States v. Lopez-DeLeon, 513 F.3d *115 472 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S.-, 128 S.Ct. 2916, 171 L.Ed.2d 851 (2008), we examined this argument in the context of California’s statute prohibiting sexual intercourse with a minor, California Penal Code § 261.5(c). We reviewed the Model Penal Code, treatises, modern state codes, and dictionaries to determine that “the ordinary, contemporary, and common meaning of minor, or ‘age of consent’ for purposes of a statutory rape analysis, is sixteen.” Id. at 475; see also id. at 474 n. 3 (noting that thirty-four states and the District of Columbia set the age of consent at sixteen, six states at seventeen, and eleven states at eighteen).

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Bluebook (online)
563 F.3d 112, 2009 U.S. App. LEXIS 6166, 2009 WL 693146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-munoz-ortenza-ca5-2009.