United States v. Rafael Albornoz-Albornoz

770 F.3d 1139, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20978, 2014 WL 5573313
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedNovember 3, 2014
Docket13-41349
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 770 F.3d 1139 (United States v. Rafael Albornoz-Albornoz) 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. Rafael Albornoz-Albornoz, 770 F.3d 1139, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20978, 2014 WL 5573313 (5th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Rafael Albornoz-Albornoz appeals his sentence by challenging a sixteen-level enhancement for a crime of violence (“COV”). He maintains that his past conviction of attempted second-degree burglary does not qualify as a COV under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“U.S.S.G.”) § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) because New York’s burglary statute is broader than the generic crime of burglary of a dwelling under the sentencing guidelines. Specifically, he reasons that the term “dwelling” under New York law is more expansive than the common definition of that term. We conclude otherwise and affirm.

I.

In 2011, Albornoz-Albornoz was convicted in New York of attempted second-degree burglary. A Colombian citizen,' he was deported, but border agents later apprehended him in the United States. He pleaded guilty of illegal reentry under 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a).

The presentence investigation report (“PSR”) made the following sentencing calculations: a base offense level of 8 and a criminal-history category of III, a two-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility, and a sixteen-level enhancement for a felony conviction of a COV. See U.S.S.G. §§ 2L1.2, 3El.l(a). After the government moved for an additional one-level reduction, the final sentencing range was 4657 months.

Albornoz-Albornoz submitted timely objections to the enhancement, contending that the New York burglary statute was broader than the generic crime of burglary of a dwelling in the guidelines’ list of enumerated offenses. The court disagreed and sentenced him to forty-six months.

II.

We review the district court’s interpretation and application of the guidelines de novo. 1 Under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A), a defendant convicted of *1141 illegal reentry is subject to a sixteen-level sentencing enhancement if he was previously deported after any federal, state, or local conviction for, among other things, a COV. The commentary then lists what offenses count as COVs, including “burglary of a dwelling.” § 2L1.2. cmt. (l)(B)(iii).

For an enhancement based on a state conviction, the state crime must not stretch further than the generic definition of the enumerated crime. Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 599-601, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). To resolve whether a state statute is more expansive than an enumerated crime, “courts must examine the statutory definition of the offense to determine whether an associated conviction necessarily satisfies the elements of the generic crime, as that crime is understood in its ordinary, contemporary meaning.” Guerrero-Navarro, 737 F.3d at 978. This is a categorical, common-sense analysis, and courts do not look to the actual facts of the conviction. Taylor, 495 U.S. at 599-600, 110 S.Ct. 2143; Murillo-Lopez, 444 F.3d at 339-40.

For instance, a state conviction of arson qualifies as a COV under § 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) only “if either its statutory definition substantially corresponds to ‘generic’ [arson], or the charging paper and jury instructions actually required the jury to find all the elements of generic [arson] in order to convict.” Taylor, 495 U.S. at 602, 110 S.Ct. 2143; see also Guerrero-Navarro, 737 F.3d at 978. If the court finds “a realistic probability, not a theoretical possibility, that the State would apply its statute to conduct that falls outside the generic definition of the crime,” then it cannot use the state conviction to enhance. Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez, 549 U.S. 183, 193, 127 S.Ct. 815, 166 L.Ed.2d 683 (2007) (emphasis added). At a minimum, the defendant must point to cases in which a state court has applied the statute in a broader manner. Id.

III.

A.

Following the Supreme Court’s road-map, we begin with New York’s burglary statute: “A person is guilty of burglary in the second degree when he knowingly enters or remains unlawfully in a building with intent to commit a crime therein, and when ... [t]he building is a dwelling.” N.Y. Penal Law § 140.25 (McKinney 2014). Elsewhere, the law defines a “dwelling” as “a building which is usually occupied by a person lodging therein at night” and states that “[w]here a building consists of two or more units separately secured or occupied, each unit shall be deemed both a separate building in itself and a part of the main building.” Id. § 140.00(2), (3). Albornoz-Albornoz does not dispute that these are the relevant statutes but maintains that New York courts have interpreted “dwelling” to be broader than the generic definition.

To see how New York courts have interpreted and applied the burglary statute, we need not look much further than People v. McCray, 23 N.Y.3d 621, 624, 992 N.Y.S.2d 475,16 N.E.3d 533 (2014):

Generally, if a building contains a dwelling, a burglary committed in any part of that building is the burglary of a dwelling; but an exception exists where the building is large and the crime is committed in a place so remote and inaccessible from the living quarters that the special dangers inherent in the burglary of a dwelling do not exist.

Thus, New York’s highest court upheld McCray’s second-degree burglary conviction of entering part of a building with direct stairway access to a hotel floor with guest rooms. Id. at 629-30, 992 N.Y.S.2d *1142 475, 16 N.E.3d 533. That definition also comports with the intermediate-court decisions that Albornoz-Albornoz relies on. 2 Therefore, we accept the Court of Appeals’s holding, along with the statutory-language, as the relevant authorities for New York’s definition of “dwelling.”

B.

Following the Taylor roadmap, we next determine the general meaning of “dwelling” within the Guidelines by examining the “ordinary, contemporary” definition of the enumerated crime, Guerrero-Navarro, 737 F.3d at 979, including “looking] to sources such as the Model Penal Code, Professor LaFave’s treatise, and legal dictionaries,” United States v. Mungiza-Portillo, 484 F.3d 813, 816 (5th Cir.2007). We start with definitions for “dwelling” or “dwelling house” from legal and general dictionaries:

a building, a part of a building, a tent, a mobile home, or another enclosed space that is used or intended for use as a human habitation. The term ...

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770 F.3d 1139, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 20978, 2014 WL 5573313, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-rafael-albornoz-albornoz-ca5-2014.