April 11th, 2017

United States v. Guillen-Cruz

Docket: 16-40131
Opinion Date: April 10, 2017
Judge: James L. Dennis
Areas of Law: Criminal Law

Defendant appealed his 24 month sentence after pleading guilty to being found in the United States after a previous deportation. Defendant argued that the district court inappropriately imposed a sentencing enhancement pursuant to USSG 2L1.2(b)(1)(C), because his prior conviction for exporting defense articles on the United States Munitions List without a license was not a prior aggravated felony for the purposes of the Sentencing Guidelines. The court agreed and concluded that defendant's prior offense was not an aggravated felony under either the categorical or modified categorical approach. The court explained that defendant's criminal history does not support a basis for affirming the erroneous sentence. In this case, the court found that defendant's criminal history, which largely consists of arrests for which the underlying conduct was never charged or the charges were eventually dismissed does not trump the significant sentencing disparity caused by the district court's plain error. Accordingly, the court vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing.