United States v. Perez

325 F. Supp. 3d 1058
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedSeptember 6, 2018
DocketCase No. 17-cr-00552-CRB-1
StatusPublished

This text of 325 F. Supp. 3d 1058 (United States v. Perez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Perez, 325 F. Supp. 3d 1058 (N.D. Cal. 2018).

Opinion

SENTENCING ORDER

CHARLES R. BREYER, United States District Judge *1059The Court has sentenced Defendant Rose Perez to sixty months imprisonment following her conviction for possession with intent to distribute Methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and § 841(b)(1)(B). The first Presentence Report calculated Perez's Total Offense Level as 31, based, in part, on its determination that she qualified as a career offender under United States Sentencing Guidelines §§ 4B1.1 and 4B1.2(b). At sentencing, Perez argued that the two prior convictions that the Presentence Report identified as the basis for this determination did not qualify as controlled substance offenses. The government did not disagree. This Court thus sentenced Perez on the understanding that Perez's Total Offense Level was properly calculated without the career offender enhancement, and was thus properly calculated as 28.

Although the parties did not dispute at sentencing that Perez's prior convictions did not qualify as controlled substance offenses, this Court considers it prudent to state why it agrees that these prior convictions under California Health and Safety Code § 11378 do not, in light of recent Ninth Circuit precedent, qualify as controlled substance offenses.

I. LEGAL STANDARD

The United States Sentencing Guidelines provide a sentencing enhancement for offenders who, while at least eighteen years old, commit a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense, and have "at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense." U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a). In determining whether a prior conviction qualifies as such a crime, courts employ what is known as the "categorical approach." United States v. Leal-Vega, 680 F.3d 1160, 1163 (9th Cir. 2012). Under that approach, courts "do not examine the facts underlying the prior offense, but look only to the fact of conviction and the statutory definition of the prior offense." United States v. Pimentel-Flores, 339 F.3d 959, 968 (9th Cir. 2003) (internal citation omitted). Under that approach, "[i]f the statutory definition of the prior offense criminalizes conduct that would not constitute" either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense, then that prior conviction is not categorically a "crime of violence" or a "controlled substance offense." Leal-Vega, 680 F.3d at 1164.

Courts then undertake what is, intuitively, called the "modified categorical approach," in which courts "determine whether the state law is divisible-i.e., whether the overly broad element sets out alternative means of committing a single crime or alternative elements of committing two or more distinct crimes." Lorenzo v. Sessions, 902 F.3d 930, 933-34, 2018 WL 4100360, at *3 (9th Cir. Aug. 29, 2018). If a statute is divisible, courts may consider "the charging document, the terms of a plea agreement or transcript of colloquy between judge and defendant in which the factual basis for the plea was confirmed by the defendant, or to some comparable judicial record of this information." Leal-Vega, 680 F.3d at 1168 (quoting Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 26, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005) ). But, if a statute is not divisible, then courts may not apply the modified categorical approach, see Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254, 258, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013), United States v. Lee, 821 F.3d 1124, 1128 (9th Cir. 2016).

*1060II. DISCUSSION

To determine whether Perez is properly categorized as a career offender based on her prior convictions under California Health and Safety Code § 11378, this Court must determine whether those convictions qualify as predicate controlled substance offenses using the above-described categorical approach. This determination is controlled by a pair of recent Ninth Circuit opinions: Lorenzo v. Sessions, 902 F.3d 930, 2018 WL 4100360 (9th Cir. Aug. 29, 2018), and United States v. Leal-Vega, 680 F.3d 1160 (9th Cir. 2012).

In the former, Lorenzo, the Ninth Circuit addressed whether California Health and Safety Code § 11378 qualified as a "controlled substance offense" under 8 U.S.C. § 1227, which renders certain noncitizens eligible for deportation if they have committed, as relevant here a "controlled substance offense." 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(B)(i).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Shepard v. United States
544 U.S. 13 (Supreme Court, 2005)
United States v. Gilberto Pimentel-Flores
339 F.3d 959 (Ninth Circuit, 2003)
United States v. Leal-Vega
680 F.3d 1160 (Ninth Circuit, 2012)
Descamps v. United States
133 S. Ct. 2276 (Supreme Court, 2013)
Mielewczyk v. Holder
575 F.3d 992 (Ninth Circuit, 2009)
Cheuk Fung S-Yong v. Holder
600 F.3d 1028 (Ninth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Jason Lee
821 F.3d 1124 (Ninth Circuit, 2016)
Elisio Atenia Lorenzo v. Jefferson Sessions, III
902 F.3d 930 (Ninth Circuit, 2018)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
325 F. Supp. 3d 1058, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-perez-cand-2018.