Background
Travis Sims appealed his sentence of one hundred fifty-one months for possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and cocaine base. He argued that the district court erroneously assigned six criminal history points for two sentences imposed in 2002, which were more than fifteen years before his instant offense.
The court’s reasoning
The court reviewed the Sentencing Guidelines de novo. Section four A one point two of the guidelines states that criminal history points are based on the maximum sentence pronounced, not the time actually served. However, Section four A one point two subsection e one and three specify that prior sentences are only counted if imposed within fifteen years of the instant offense or if the defendant was incarcerated during that period. Since the 2002 sentences did not meet these criteria, they should not have been counted. This error shifted Sims from criminal history category four to category six, resulting in an advisory guideline range of one hundred fifty-one to one hundred eighty-eight months instead of one hundred twenty-one to one hundred fifty-one months.
What it means going forward
The case was remanded for resentencing to correct the criminal history calculation and apply the proper advisory guideline range.