United States v. Quinnones, No. 20-2709 (3d Cir. 2021)
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Quinnones pleaded guilty to two counts of armed bank robbery and stipulated that her commission of an armed robbery of a store should be treated at sentencing as if it were a third conviction. The PSR recommended that she be sentenced as a career offender under U.S.S.G. 4B1.1, classifying her conviction for armed bank robbery and her four prior convictions for assault by a prisoner under 18 Pa. Cons. Stat. 2703 as “crimes of violence.” Quinnones objected, arguing that three of her 2703 convictions did not qualify as crimes of violence. The district court applied the career offender designation, departed downward from the Guidelines range of 188-235 months, and sentenced Quinnones to 132 months’ imprisonment.
The Third Circuit vacated. Assault by a prisoner under the portion of section 2703 that criminalizes “caus[ing] another to come into contact with [bodily] fluid” when the prisoner knew or should have known the fluid came from someone with a communicable disease is not a “crime of violence” under U.S.S.G. 4B1.1. The least culpable conduct for which a defendant can be convicted under the statute is spitting or expelling fluid when the person should have known the fluid was infected; such conduct does not include “physical force” for purposes of the Guidelines. A defendant can be convicted of 2703’s bodily fluids felony with only a negligent state of mind as to whether the fluid originated from an infected person.
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