Opinion ID: 546287
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Convictions more than fifteen years old

Text: 13 The district court took into consideration two felonies--unlawful taking of a motor vehicle and forgery--which were not included in the calculus for determining Mr. Williams' criminal history category because they occurred more than fifteen years prior to the current offense. See Guideline Sec. 4A1.2(e)(1). The guidelines provide two ways for the district court to consider the old convictions for purposes of upward departure. First, application note 8 to Sec. 4A1.2 allows the court to consider older convictions [i]f the government is able to show that [the] sentence ... is evidence of similar misconduct or that the defendant received a substantial portion of income from criminal livelihood. See Gardner, 905 F.2d at 1435; United States v. De Luna-Trujillo, 868 F.2d 122, 124-25 (5th Cir.1989). 2 The sentences involved in this case are not suited for consideration under this rationale, because the two crimes apparently are nonviolent and thus substantially dissimilar to the current conviction (possession of a firearm). 14 The second way in which the old convictions might be considered is under section 4A1.3 as reliable information. Dissimilar criminal conduct occurring more than fifteen years prior to the current offense still may be relevant in determining whether the criminal history category underrepresents the defendant's criminality. Cf. United States v. Carey, 898 F.2d 642, 645-46 & 646 n. 5 (8th Cir.1990) (even when record did not reflect whether old burglary convictions were violent crimes or gun-related, district court properly considered them as reliable information under Sec. 4A1.3 to increase criminal history category on defendant convicted under 18 U.S.C. Sec. 922(g)). As our colleagues on the Tenth Circuit recently commented, older convictions may reflect a defendant who has shown himself to be, in reality, a recidivous criminal. United States v. Jackson, 903 F.2d 1313, 1318 (10th Cir.1990) (district court properly referred to, inter alia, a twenty-one year old forgery conviction in applying Sec. 4A1.3 to increase criminal history category of defendant convicted of being a felon in possession of ammunition). We conclude that such old convictions may--in appropriate circumstances--be reliable information indicating more extensive criminal conduct than otherwise reflected by the criminal history category. 15 Here, the two convictions in question were not the sole basis for departure. As we shall discuss more specifically later, the district court considered these convictions along with other aggravating factors that, taken together, required, in the district court's view, an upward departure. We cannot say that consideration of these two convictions as part of an overall assessment of the defendant's criminal background was inappropriate. 16