United States v. Flores, No. 16-50096 (9th Cir. 2018)
Annotate this CaseCalifornia's receipt of stolen property offense is a categorical match for the generic federal crime of receipt of stolen property. The Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for attempting to reenter the United States after being deported, holding that defendant's prior California conviction for receipt of stolen property was a felony theft offense that was an aggravated felony under the Immigration and Naturalization Act. The panel also held that the district court properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss the indictment and rejected defendant's remaining claims.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed a conviction for attempting to reenter the United States after being deported in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a). The panel held that receiving stolen property under California Penal Code § 496(a) is a categorical match for the generic federal crime of receipt of stolen property, and that it is therefore not unreasonable for the Board of Immigration Appeals to construe it as a felony “theft offense (including receipt of stolen property),” that is, as an aggravated felony as defined in the Immigration and Nationality Act. The panel concluded that the defendant’s deportation based on a prior conviction for receipt of stolen property, along with a sentence of more than one year of imprisonment, was not fundamentally unfair and was a proper basis for the defendant’s illegal reentry conviction. The panel rejected the defendant’s contention that he had plausible grounds for relief from his 2009 expedited removal in the form of withdrawal of his application for admission, and therefore concluded that even assuming the expedited removal proceedings violated his due process rights, he could not establish prejudice. The panel held that the district court, which applied Daubert explicitly in the proceeding on the defendant’s UNITED STATES V. FLORES 3 motion in limine and during the bench trial, did not abdicate its gatekeeping function by admitting the testimony of a fingerprint expert.
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