United States v. Barnes, No. 17-2574 (7th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseBarnes pleaded guilty to offenses related to the distribution of crack cocaine and was sentenced to 300 months of imprisonment. Barnes did not appeal. In 2012, Barnes moved under 28 U.S.C. 2255 to vacate, set aside, or correct his sentence, arguing that two Illinois convictions used to classify Barnes as a career offender (for robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm) were no longer valid predicates. After his federal sentencing, Barnes persuaded a state court to convert those adult felony convictions to adjudications of delinquency. Barnes was 15 when he committed these crimes but was tried as an adult. The district court granted his motion and ordered a revised presentence investigation report, which did not use the delinquency adjudications to classify Barnes as a career offender but did count them in his criminal history score. After Barnes’s counsel noted a procedural irregularity in the state-court judgment, the government agreed that the court should not assess criminal history points for the juvenile offenses or the associated parole violation. The court sentenced Barnes to 189 months of imprisonment. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that Barnes waived an argument that the district court incorrectly counted a local ordinance violation for “Smoking Marihuana at a Public Park” as part of his criminal history. Local ordinance violations do not count toward criminal history unless the underlying conduct would also violate state law, U.S.S.G. 4A1.2(c)(2).
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