United States v. Johnson, No. 18-10016 (9th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence imposed after he pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The panel held that defendant's concessions in the district court foreclosed his newly minted argument that his underlying conviction for violation of California Penal Code 245(a)(1) was not actually a felony under California law; defendant failed to establish, in the alternative, that he received a misdemeanor sentence for his section 245(a)(1) conviction; Moncrieffe v. Holder, 569 U.S. 184 (2013), did not alter this court's longstanding precedents holding that a felony conviction under section 245(a)(1) is a crime of violence; a wobbler conviction is punishable as a felony, even if the court later exercises its discretion to reduce the offense to a misdemeanor; and the panel rejected defendant's challenges to the crime of violence enhancement to defendant's offense level.
Court Description: Criminal Law. The panel affirmed a sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm in a case in which the district court applied a crime-of-violence enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A) based on the defendant’s prior conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in violation of Calif. Penal Code § 245(a)(1). The panel held that, pursuant to Fed. R. Crim. P. 32(i)(3)(A), the defendant’s concessions in the district court foreclose his newly minted argument that his conviction for violating § 245(a)(1) was not for a felony – i.e., an offense “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” – but rather for a misdemeanor, under California law. Reviewing de novo, the panel held alternatively that the defendant failed to establish that he received a misdemeanor sentence for his § 245(a)(1) conviction. The panel explained that the defendant’s offense never “wobbled” to a misdemeanor, and that the district court therefore did not err in concluding that the defendant was previously convicted of an offense punishable by a term exceeding one year in prison. The panel held that Moncrieffe v. Holder, 569 U.S. 184 (2013), does not alter this court’s longstanding precedents holding that a felony conviction under § 245(a)(1) is a crime of violence. The panel explained that Moncrieffe’s upshot –
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on October 28, 2020.
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