United States v. Perlaza-Ortiz

The Fifth Circuit vacated defendant's sentence after he pleaded guilty to unlawfully reentering the United States. The court held that the district court erred by applying a sixteen-level enhancement to defendant's base offense level under USSG 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(ii), for defendant's prior conviction under Texas Penal Code 22.05(b). The district court reached its sentencing decision before the decision in Mathis v. United States, 136 S. Ct. 2243 (2016), which provided helpful guidance for determining whether a predicate statute of conviction was divisible. In this case, because the government failed to prove Section 22.05(b) was divisible, Section 22.05(b) may not be used here as the basis for a crime-of-violence enhancement. View "United States v. Perlaza-Ortiz" on Justia Law