United States v. Quintero-Junco, No. 13-10087 (9th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction and sentence for illegal reentry after deportation. The court concluded that the district court's sentencing methodology was proper because the district court adequately considered the Guidelines in fashioning defendant's sentence. Applying the modified categorical approach, the court concluded that the portion of the Arizona statute under which defendant was previously convicted was categorically a forcible sex offense and therefore a crime of violence under the Guidelines. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed a sentence for illegal reentry after deportation in a case in which the district court applied an enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(ii) on the ground that the defendant’s prior conviction for attempted sexual abuse under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-1404 was a forcible sex offense and thus a crime of violence. The panel held that because the district court adequately considered the Sentencing Guidelines in fashioning the defendant’s sentence, its sentencing methodology was proper. The panel held that the district court properly analyzed the defendant’s prior conviction under the modified categorical approach because § 13-1404 is divisible. The panel held that the district court, which did not have the benefit of Descamps v. United States, misapplied the modified categorical approach by looking behind the defendant’s conviction in search of record evidence that he actually committed the generic offense, but that the error was inconsequential because the elements of the statutory prong under which the defendant was convicted categorically match the elements of the generic definition of forcible sex offense.
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