United States v. Riscajche-Siquina

30 F. Supp. 3d 580, 2014 WL 2980976, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90396
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Texas
DecidedJuly 1, 2014
DocketCriminal No. B-14-122-1
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 30 F. Supp. 3d 580 (United States v. Riscajche-Siquina) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Riscajche-Siquina, 30 F. Supp. 3d 580, 2014 WL 2980976, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90396 (S.D. Tex. 2014).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

ANDREW S. HANEN, District Judge.

Miguel Riscajche-Siquina (hereinafter “Riscajche-Siquina” or “Defendant”) pleaded guilty to illegal reentry into the United States after having been convicted of a felony and deported in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a) and (b)(1). The Pre-Sen-tence Investigation Report (hereinafter “PSI”) assigned Riscajche-Siquina a base, offense level of eight and recommended a sixteen-level enhancement due to his prior 2006 conviction for two counts of First Degree Burglary of an Occupied Dwelling [582]*582in Washington County, Oregon — an enumerated ■ offense under Section 2L1.2(b)(l)(A)(ii) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines (hereinafter “U.S.S.G.” or “Guidelines”).

The Oregon statute under which Defendant was indicted criminalizes the following conduct:

[A] person commits the crime of burglary ... if the person enters or remains in a building with the intent to commit a crime therein.

Or.Rev.Stat. § 164.215 (2014). A person commits first degree burglary if the building in question is a dwelling. Id. § 164.225

The Oregon Circuit Court Judgment of Conviction and Sentence indicates that Defendant had been “indicted, arraigned, tried and found guilty by Court verdict of the crimes of Burglary in the First Degree of an occupied dwelling (Class A Felony, crime seriousness, criminal history H) in Counts 1 and 2.” Defendant concedes that in normal parlance, a conviction for burglary of a habitation would merit the sixteen-level enhancement, but claims that the Oregon statute under which he was convicted criminalizes conduct far beyond that contemplated by the enumerated offense “burglary of a dwelling” found in the Guidelines.

The Commentary to Section 2L1.2 of the Guidelines defines a crime of violence as follows:

“Crime of Violence” means any of the following offenses under federal, state, or local law: murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, aggravated assault, forcible sex offenses (including where consent to the conduct is not given or is not legally valid, such as where consent to the corn-duct is involuntary, incompetent, or coerced), statutory rape, sexual abuse of a minor, robbery, arson, extortion, extortionate extension of credit, burglary of a dwelling, or any other offense under federal, state, or local law that has an element the use, attempted, use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.

U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2L1.2 Commentary, , Application Note l(B)iii (emphasis added).

Riscajche-Siquina’s objection focuses on the fact that the Oregon statute criminalizes

“remaining in” a dwelling with the intent to commit a crime. He argues that the generic, contemporary meaning of burglary of a habitation only contemplates that one must “enter a building unlawfully with the intent to commit a crime.” Oregon’s law not only criminalizes entering with the intent to commit a crime, but also criminalizes an act if one “remains unlawfully in a [dwelling] with the intent to commit a crime therein.” Since the judicial documents that memorialize Defendant’s conviction do not specifically which prong (entering or remaining) of which he was guilty, Defendant contends that the Court must presume that it was the “remaining” prong, which is conduct outside of that encompassed by the U.S.S.G. The Court agrees that it must make this presumption, but does not agree that this offense falls outside the Guidelines.

For support, Defendant directs this Court to the Model Penal Code. The Model Penal Code, as Defendant points out, does not criminalize remaining in a dwelling. It only defines burglary to include one who “enters a building or occupied structure ... with the intent to commit a crime therein.” Model Penal Code § 221.1. Thus, the question is easily framed: Does the generic, contemporary meaning of “burglary of habitation” include remaining in a habitation with the intent .to commit a crime? This Court has not found a Fifth [583]*583Circuit case that has directly answered this question. As noted, the Defendant correctly cites to the Court the fact that the Model Penal Code does not criminalize “remaining.” If the Model Penal Code was the ultimate or only arbiter of the meaning of the Guidelines, then the Court would simply grant the objection. The Fifth Circuit has not made the analysis the Court must undertake under the categorical approach that easy.

The categorical approach applies to determine whether a prior conviction triggers a Guideline enhancement. See Descamps v. United States, — U.S. -, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 2281, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013) reh’g denied, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 41, 186 L.Ed.2d 955 (U.S.2013); Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 600-02, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990). Under this approach, a court “looks to the elements of [the] prior offense, rather than to the facts underlying the conviction... United States v. Henao-Melo, 591 F.3d 798, 802 (5th Cir.2009) (quoting United States v. Garza-Lopez, 410 F.3d 268, 273 (5th Cir.2005)). Analyzing the elements of the prior offense may also involve examining the statutory definitions. See Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 16, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005).

“In a ‘narrow range of cases,’ however, a district court may look beyond the elements of the offense when making such a determination.” United States v. Garza-Lopez, 410 F.3d 268, 273 (5th Cir.2005) (quoting Taylor, 495 U.S. at 602, 110 S.Ct. 2143). This “modified categorical approach” is appropriate when the underlying statute is a “divisible statute”-meaning that it disjunctively prohibits multiple crimes. Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2281. The modified categorical approach permits courts to examine the “charging document, written plea agreement, transcript of plea colloquy, and any explicit factual finding by the trial judge to which the defendant assented.” United States v. Herrera-Escobedo, 440 Fed.Appx. 365, 367 (5th Cir.2011) (quoting Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 16, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005)). Both parties agree that the Oregon statute disjunctively criminalizes two different means by which one can violate the law. Therefore, the statute is divisible and the modified categorical approach is appropriate.

A prior offense triggers a sentencing enhancement “if the statute’s elements are the same as, or narrower than, those of the generic offense.” Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2281. In examining whether a prior offense is sufficiently similar to the Guidelines’ drug trafficking offense, the Fifth Circuit has previously examined whether the two offenses were “obviously different.” See United States v. Palacios-Quinonez,

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Bluebook (online)
30 F. Supp. 3d 580, 2014 WL 2980976, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 90396, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-riscajche-siquina-txsd-2014.