United States v. Pedro Cabrera-Gutierrez

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 17, 2014
Docket12-30233
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Pedro Cabrera-Gutierrez (United States v. Pedro Cabrera-Gutierrez) 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.

Bluebook
United States v. Pedro Cabrera-Gutierrez, (9th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 12-30233 Plaintiff-Appellee, D.C. No. v. 2:12-cr-02027-WFN-1

PEDRO CABRERA-GUTIERREZ, ORDER AND Defendant-Appellant. AMENDED OPINION

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington Wm. Fremming Nielsen, Senior District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted April 11, 2013—Seattle, Washington

Filed June 3, 2013 Amended March 17, 2014

Before: A. Wallace Tashima and Consuelo M. Callahan, Circuit Judges, and Raner C. Collins, District Judge.*

Order; Opinion by Judge Tashima; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge Callahan

* The Honorable Raner C. Collins, Chief United States Judge for the District of Arizona, sitting by designation. 2 UNITED STATES V. CABRERA-GUTIERREZ

SUMMARY**

Criminal Law

The panel granted a petition for panel rehearing, withdrew an Opinion filed June 3, 2013, filed an Amended Opinion and concurring and dissenting opinion, and denied a petition for rehearing en banc as moot, in a case in which the defendant was convicted of failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Nationality Act.

In the Amended Opinion, the panel affirmed the conviction, but vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing.

The panel held that Congress has authority under the Commerce Clause to compel the defendant, a convicted sex offender who traveled interstate, to register under SORNA as a sex offender.

The panel held that the district court erred in sentencing the defendant as a Tier III sex offender under 42 U.S.C. § 16911(4) based on his prior conviction of second degree sexual abuse under Or. Rev. Stat. § 163.425. Applying the categorical approach, the panel held that § 163.425 is broader than the federal crime of sexual abuse. The panel held that § 163.425 is not divisible within the meaning of the Supreme Court’s decision in Descamps v. United States, and that application of the modified categorical approach is therefore precluded.

** This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader. UNITED STATES V. CABRERA-GUTIERREZ 3

The panel instructed the district court to consider on remand whether the defendant should receive a third level of reduction for acceptance of responsibility in light of the November 1, 2013, amendment to U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b).

Judge Callahan concurred and dissented. She agreed that Congress had the authority to enact SORNA and that SORNA’s application to the defendant is constitutional. Because she reads the relevant Oregon statutes to be “divisible” as defined in Descamps, she would hold that the district court properly sentenced the defendant as a Tier III sex offender.

COUNSEL

Rebecca L. Pennell, Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington & Idaho, Yakima, Washington, for Defendant- Appellant.

Michael C. Ormsby, United States Attorney, and Alison L. Gregoire (argued), Assistant United States Attorney, Yakima, Washington, for Plaintiff-Appellee. 4 UNITED STATES V. CABRERA-GUTIERREZ

ORDER

Defendant-Appellant’s petition for panel rehearing is granted. The Opinion, filed June 3, 2013, and reported at 718 F.3d 873, is withdrawn and replaced by the Amended Opinion and concurring and dissenting opinion filed concurrently with this Order. The petition for rehearing en banc is denied as moot. Further petitions for panel rehearing and/or rehearing en banc may be filed with respect to the Amended Opinion.

OPINION

TASHIMA, Circuit Judge:

Our original Opinion was filed on June 3, 2013. See United States v. Cabrera-Gutierrez, 718 F.3d 873 (9th Cir. 2013). Shortly thereafter, on June 20, 2013, the Supreme Court decided Descamps v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2776 (2013), which worked a substantial change in sentencing law. We therefore granted the petition for panel rehearing and withdrew our Opinion. We now affirm the conviction, but vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing.

Pedro Cabrera-Gutierrez (“Cabrera”) appeals his conviction and sentence for failing to register under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). On appeal he advances two arguments. First, he contends that Congress lacked authority under the Commerce Clause to compel his registration as a sex offender. Second, he contends that the district court erred in sentencing him as a UNITED STATES V. CABRERA-GUTIERREZ 5

Tier III sex offender based on his prior conviction of second degree sexual abuse.1

We reject Cabrera’s first argument, but agree with his second. We hold that Congress has authority under the Commerce Clause to compel Cabrera, a convicted sex offender who traveled interstate, to register under SORNA. But, following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Descamps, we hold that the district court erred when it applied the modified categorical approach in sentencing Cabrera as a Tier III sex offender. Descamps precludes application of the modified categorical approach in this case.

I.

Cabrera was born in Mexico and has been removed from the United States several times. In 1998, Cabrera was

1 Cabrera raises a third issue: whether the government improperly denied him a third level of reduction for acceptance of responsibility under U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b). While our precedents foreclosed Cabrera’s contention at the time of our original Opinion, see United States v. Johnson, 581 F.3d 994, 1001 (9th Cir. 2009), § 3E1.1was amended, effective November 1, 2013, to clarify that “the government should not withhold . . . a motion [for reduction for acceptance of responsibility] based on interests not identified in § 3E1.1, such as whether the defendant agrees to waive his or her right to appeal.” U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1, comment n.6. This amendment applies to this case. See United States v. Catalan, 701 F.3d 331, 333 (9th Cir. 2012) (“When an amendment to the Guidelines clarifies, rather than alters, existing law, we use the amendment to interpret the Guidelines provision retroactively.”). Because we vacate Cabrera’s sentence and remand for resentencing based on Cabrera’s erroneous classification as a Tier III offender, see infra, we need not consider the effect of this amendment. The district court, however, should consider on remand whether Cabrera should receive a third level of reduction for acceptance of responsibility in light of this amendment. 6 UNITED STATES V. CABRERA-GUTIERREZ

convicted in Oregon of second degree sexual abuse. In his guilty plea statement, Cabrera admitted:

I on May 2, 1998 did knowingly have sexual intercourse with [redacted] and she was unable to legally consent to having sexual intercourse with me because she was under the influence of alcohol at the time of the sexual intercourse. Further [redacted] was 15 years old on May 2, 1998.

Cabrera was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment and required to register as a sex offender. When Cabrera was released from custody in September 2000, he was advised of his responsibility to register as a sex offender under Oregon law and promptly removed to Mexico.

On February 3, 2012, Cabrera was arrested for a traffic violation in Yakima, Washington. He was subsequently charged with failing to register as a sex offender in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250.

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United States v. Pedro Cabrera-Gutierrez, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-pedro-cabrera-gutierrez-ca9-2014.