Opinion ID: 168015
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Mr. Ortega-Enriquez

Text: 8 Mr. Ortega-Enriquez pleaded guilty to third-degree assault in Colorado on October 20, 2003. He received a four-day jail sentence and two years of unsupervised probation. On October 24, 2003, he was released into the custody of Immigration and Custom Enforcement and deported on November 11, 2003. Three days later, Mr. Ortega-Enriquez was found in the United States and charged with illegal reentry. He pleaded guilty to that charge on January 27, 2004. 9 The PSR prepared for Mr. Ortega-Enriquez calculated a base offense level of 8, added 16 levels for a prior crime of violence (the Colorado third-degree assault), and subtracted 3 levels for acceptance of responsibility. The Colorado assault also increased his criminal history from category I to category II. Based on an offense level of 21, and a criminal history category of II, the PSR recommended a guidelines range of 41-51 months. 10 At sentencing, Mr. Ortega-Enriquez filed a motion for a criminal history departure, claiming that category II overrepresented his criminal history. The district court agreed, and reduced his criminal history to category I, reducing the range to 37-46 months. Although Mr. Ortega-Enriquez conceded that his prior Colorado conviction was a crime of violence, he argued that he did not qualify for the 16-level enhancement because his four-day prison sentence precluded the prior conviction from being considered an aggravated felony. Basing its conclusion in part on the government's decision to appeal the sentences in Mr. Hernandez-Garduno's and Mr. Ramos-Espino's cases, the district court, with great reluctance, rejected Mr. Ortega-Enriquez's aggravated felony argument. Case No. 04-2348, R. Vol. III, at 6. Although the court noted that classifying the prior assault conviction as a felony, and thereby enhancing the base offense level by only four levels, would have produced a fair sentence in the range of 8-14 months, the district court concluded that an 8-14 month range was not the sentence compelled by the language of the sentencing guidelines. Case No. 04-2348, Sent. Tr. at 25-26. The court therefore applied the 37-46 month range, and sentenced Mr. Ortega-Enriquez to 37 months' imprisonment, a sentence the court characterized as terribly unfair. Case No. 04-2348, R. Vol. III, at 6.