United States v. Murillo-Alvarado, No. 14-50354 (9th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseSection 11351 of the California Health and Safety Code (possession or purchase for sale of designated controlled substance) is divisible –as discussed in Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016) –as to its controlled substance requirement, such that a conviction under that statute may, applying the modified categorical approach, be held to be a drug trafficking offense under the Sentencing Guidelines. In this case, the Ninth Circuit applied the modified categorical approach and held that the government established that defendant was previously convicted of possessing cocaine for sale, which qualifies as a drug trafficking offense under the Sentencing Guidelines. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
Court Description: Criminal Law. Affirming a sentence, the panel held that section 11351 of the California Health and Safety Code (possession or purchase for sale of designated controlled substance) is divisible –as discussed in Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016) –as to its controlled substance requirement, such that a conviction under that statute may, applying the modified categorical approach, be held to be a drug trafficking offense under the United States Sentencing Guidelines. Applying the modified categorical approach, the panel held that the government established, through judicially noticeable documents, that the defendant’s § 11351 conviction was for a substance, cocaine, that was a controlled substance under federal law, and that the district court therefore properly applied a 16-level enhancement pursuant to USSG § 2L1.2(b)(1)(A) (2014) (amended 2016). UNITED STATES V. MURILLO-ALVARADO 3
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