Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-06-04051/USCOURTS-ca8-06-04051-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Jose Parks
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

1

The Honorable E. Richard Webber, United States District Judge for the Eastern

District of Missouri. 

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 06-4051

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the

* Eastern District of Missouri.

Jose Parks, *

* [UNPUBLISHED]

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: September 28, 2007

Filed: October 4, 2007

___________

Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and RILEY, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

The district court1

 concluded Jose Parks (Parks) was a career offender under

United States Sentencing Guideline § 4B1.1 based on Parks’s prior felony convictions

for escape and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver. Parks

appeals, arguing the district court erred in (1) applying the preponderance of the

evidence standard, rather than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard, to determine

whether Parks’s prior convictions qualify as crimes of violence or controlled

substance offenses, and (2) concluding Parks’s escape conviction qualifies as a crime

Appellate Case: 06-4051 Page: 1 Date Filed: 10/04/2007 Entry ID: 3358803
-2-

of violence. We disagree. “Determining whether a prior conviction is a ‘crime of

violence’ for § 4B1.2 purposes is a question of law, not a question of fact found by the

judge.” United States v. Bockes, 447 F.3d 1090, 1093 n.4 (8th Cir. 2006). A district

court need not apply the beyond a reasonable doubt standard to determine whether a

prior conviction qualifies as a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. See

United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 244 (2005) (“Any fact (other than a prior

conviction) which is necessary to support a sentence exceeding the maximum

authorized by the facts established by a plea of guilty or a jury verdict must be

admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”) (emphasis

added). Parks’s escape conviction qualifies as a crime of violence. See United States

v. Nation, 243 F.3d 467, 472 (8th Cir. 2001) (holding “escape is categorically a crime

of violence”). 

We affirm. See 8th Cir. R. 47B. 

______________________________

Appellate Case: 06-4051 Page: 2 Date Filed: 10/04/2007 Entry ID: 3358803