Sentencing — Consolidated sentencings

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United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Criminal

Sentencing — Consolidated sentencings

Where the sentencing court failed to apply the correct guideline range, the sentence must be vacated.

“The Sentencing Guidelines instruct courts to determine a single offense level that encompasses all counts of conviction for a given defendant, including those ‘contained in the same indictment or information,’ or as relevant here, ‘contained in different indictments or information for which sentences are to be imposed at the same time or in a consolidated proceeding.’ U.S.S.G. ch. 3, pt. D, intro. comment. Two separate federal grand juries returned indictments against Tovar-Pina—one for the unlawful reentry offense and one for the bank fraud offenses—but the district court was imposing a sentence for both indictments at the same time and in a consolidating proceeding. So, the district court should have applied U.S.S.G. §§ 3D1.4-5 and determined a single offense level, which Tovar-Pina and the government agree should have been 15 with a criminal category IV, leading to a Guidelines range of 30 to 37 months’ imprisonment on each count, with all counts running concurrently.”

Vacated and Remanded.

12-1964, 12-1965 & 12-1966 U.S. v. Tovar-Pina

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Shadid, J., Bauer, J.