Opinion ID: 31546
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Second Offense

Text: 4 Less than two weeks later, on May 20, 2002, Perez-Macias crossed the Rio Grande River and again illegally entered the United States. He was arrested by border patrol agents in Three Rivers, Texas, on May 21, 2002. 5 On June 13, 2002, Perez-Macias was indicted in federal district court in Corpus Christi on one felony count of illegal entry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a)(1) (2000) 4 and two counts of transporting illegal aliens in violation of 8 U.S.C. §§ 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii) and 1324(a)(1)(B)(ii) (2000). Because of this second offense, the magistrate judge who sentenced Perez-Macias in the first case began proceedings to revoke Perez-Macias's probation. The district court in this case sought and received transfer of the probation revocation proceedings to it in order to consolidate the revocation and the sentencing on the second offense. 6 As part of a plea agreement, Perez-Macias agreed to plead guilty to the illegal entry count in exchange for the United States's agreement to recommend the maximum credit for acceptance of responsibility and to dismiss the other two counts. The district court accepted Perez-Macias's guilty plea and considered the appropriate sentence. The district court sentenced Perez-Macias for the charged felony illegal entry offense, rather than a misdemeanor offense, because he had previously been convicted of illegal entry. The Presentence Report (PSR) recommended Perez-Macias be sentenced with an offense level of 6. 5 This reflected a base offense level of 8 for a repeat violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a) with two levels subtracted for acceptance of responsibility. See U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 2L1.2 (2001). The PSR also added three points for criminal history: one for Perez-Macias's prior illegal entry conviction and two because he was on probation for that offense when he committed the instant offense. See id. § 4A1.1. These three criminal history points put Perez-Macias in a criminal history category of II. 7 Perez-Macias objected to the use of his prior uncounseled misdemeanor to enhance his sentence, arguing that under Alabama v. Shelton, 535 U.S. 654, 122 S.Ct. 1764, 152 L.Ed.2d 888 (2002), the misdemeanor conviction was obtained in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel. Specifically, Perez-Macias objected to the use of his prior conviction to both: (1) enhance his offense from misdemeanor illegal entry (for which the maximum sentence is six months) to felony illegal entry (for which the maximum sentence is two years) under 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a) and (2) add three criminal history points to place him in a criminal history category of II under the Sentencing Guidelines. 8 The district court agreed with Perez-Macias, finding that Shelton bars the use of his prior uncounseled misdemeanor because Perez-Macias received probation in that case. 6 Therefore, the district court relieved Perez-Macias of the probation sentence in the first case and left only the $10 special assessment. 7 The district court then determined that, having vacated the sentence of probation from the misdemeanor conviction, that conviction could permissibly be used to enhance the instant offense from a misdemeanor to a felony. Alternatively, the district court held that 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a)'s felony enhancement provision, which states that a prior commission of an illegal entry offense may be used to enhance a subsequent offense, does not require a conviction, so that even if Perez-Macias's previous conviction was invalid under Shelton, his first offense may still be used to enhance his second offense. After holding that the previous conviction could be used to enhance the offense under § 1325(a), the district court decided to use the prior conviction, but not the prior (and now vacated) sentence of probation, to determine Perez-Macias's criminal history category. The district court thus gave Perez-Macias one criminal history point (rather than three), but then departed upward to a criminal history category of III (under U.S. SENTENCING GUIDELINES MANUAL § 4A1.3) because Perez-Macias had previously and repeatedly illegally entered the United States. The district court sentenced Perez-Macias to eight months in prison, one year of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. The district court then entered an order dismissing the probation revocation proceedings because it had delet[ed] the term of probation. 8 9 Perez-Macias appealed. He now argues that: (1) under Alabama v. Shelton, his prior uncounseled misdemeanor conviction cannot be used to enhance his offense from a misdemeanor to a felony and (2) the district court erred in its alternative holding that 8 U.S.C. § 1325(a) requires only commission of an offense and not a conviction 9