Criminal — Sentencing — Illegal reentry — crime of violence enhancement

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Criminal — Sentencing — Illegal reentry — crime of violence enhancement

Even if a prior conviction was not considered a crime of violence when it occurred, it was properly used to enhance the defendant’s sentence for illegal reentry where it was considered a crime of violence at the time of the illegal reentry.

“The district court also correctly ruled that the sixteen-level enhancement is independently supported by Medina’s 1989 conviction for armed robbery. Drug trafficking offenses for which the sentence imposed exceeds thirteen months are not the only felonies that support the sixteen-level enhancement. The enhancement also applies if the defendant previously was deported after a felony conviction for a crime of violence, a firearms offense, a child pornography offense, a national security or terrorism offense, a human trafficking offense, or an alien smuggling offense. U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(ii)-(vii) (2010). The 2010 guidelines include robbery in its list of offenses that are specifically designated as crimes of violence. U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n.1(B)(iii). And ‘[p]rior convictions of offenses counted under subsection (b)(1) include the offenses of . . . attempting [ ] to commit such crimes.’ U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2 cmt. n.5 (2010). Attempted robbery is therefore a crime of violence for purposes of U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2. So the enhancement was also proper because Medina had a prior felony conviction for a crime of violence. This is true even though the guidelines in effect in 1989 did not specifically enumerate robbery as a crime of violence, but as we pointed out, those guidelines do not control here.”

Affirmed.

11-2458 U.S. v. Medina

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Manning, J., Williams, J.

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