Opinion ID: 779593
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Lowe's criminal history points.

Text: 81 The final issue in this appeal is whether the district court correctly calculated Lowe's criminal history points. Lowe insists that, under the Sentencing Guidelines, the district court erroneously included two sentences of court supervision, one following a guilty plea and the other following a stipulation of facts. In the sentencing context, we review the district court's legal conclusions de novo and its findings of fact for clear error. See Parolin, 239 F.3d at 927-28. 82 Lowe had two prior Illinois offenses that resulted in sentences of supervision for one year or more. One of the sentences, eighteen months of supervision for unlawful use of a firearm and possession of cannabis, was the product of a guilty plea. The other sentence was one year for disorderly conduct, to which Lowe had made a stipulation of fact. Both orders of supervision provided that upon successful completion of supervision without further offense, the charges would be dismissed. When calculating criminal history points under the Guidelines, the district court must consider prior offenses that have led to a sentence of one year or more upon adjudication of guilt. U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2(a). The district court assigned four points for the firearm/cannabis sentence and one point for the disorderly conduct sentence, placing Lowe in a Category III criminal history. Lowe contends that because he pleaded guilty or stipulated to the facts, and because the sentences were for supervision, they did not result from an adjudication of guilt, nor should they qualify as prior history. 83 Under the Sentencing Guidelines, a prior sentence is included in a criminal history only if it was imposed upon adjudication of guilt. U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2(a). The definition of a prior sentence includes sentences of probation and sentences that were totally suspended or stayed, all of which must be counted as part of a defendant's prior criminal history. U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2(a)(3); see also United States v. Burke, 148 F.3d 832, 839 (7th Cir.1998) (treating supervision under Illinois law as the equivalent of probation and counting one year of supervision as part of criminal history even though the charges were eventually dismissed); United States v. Binford, 108 F.3d 723, 727 (7th Cir.1997) (ruling that Illinois sentence of one-year court supervision is properly a prior sentence for Guideline purposes). It is immaterial that the sentence results from a guilty plea or from a stipulation of facts because both count for criminal history purposes. See United States v. Smith, 223 F.3d 554, 578-79 (7th Cir.2000) (holding that the practical effects of stipulation are similar enough to those resulting from a plea of nolo contendere to qualify as prior history for sentencing purposes). 84 Here, there was no error. The points assigned to the firearm/cannabis sentence were appropriate because a guilty plea is an adjudication of guilt under Illinois law. Moreover, the supervisory sentence was equivalent to more than one year of probation, and the eventual dismissal of the charge is immaterial for sentencing purposes. The four points attributable to the firearm/cannabis sentence are sufficient to place Lowe in Category III; hence, any error in attributing one point to the disorderly conduct sentence is harmless. Even so, the disorderly conduct offense also appears to satisfy the requirements of § 4A1.2(a). It was therefore appropriate to include both sentences as part of the criminal history calculation.