Background
The defendant, an illegal alien with a history of multiple illegal crossings and serious prior convictions including aggravated robbery, was charged with illegal reentry after being caught crossing the border again. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eighty-four months in prison with three years of supervised release. The district court also revoked his supervised release from a prior 2019 conviction and added eighteen months for the violation. The defendant raised six arguments on appeal, including challenges to his criminal history category, the use of retributive factors in sentencing, a clerical error regarding his name, conflicting supervised release conditions, and the classification of his prior crimes as aggravated felonies.
The court’s reasoning
The court applied the plain error standard of review. It found that the district court correctly used criminal history category five based on the 2019 sentencing record. The court held that despite a passing reference to retributive factors, the sentence was supported by permissible factors under Section thirty-five fifty-three of Title eighteen. The court determined there was no clerical error in using the defendant’s other name, as it was a deliberate choice based on prior convictions. The court rejected the argument that supervised release conditions were irreconcilable, citing prior precedent. Finally, the court affirmed that the defendant’s aggravated robbery constituted an aggravated felony under Section eleven zero one of Title eight, specifically as a theft offense punishable by more than one year, making the enhanced sentencing under Section thirteen twenty-six of Title eight appropriate.
What it means going forward
The decision reinforces the Fifth Circuit’s approach to reviewing unobjected-to sentencing errors under the plain error standard and confirms that aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon is categorically an aggravated felony for immigration sentencing purposes.
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