Opinion ID: 197072
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Second Remand and Sentencing

Text: 8 During the second remand, Hardy obtained a continuance and successfully challenged two of the predicate state court convictions. As he was no longer subject to the ACCA mandatory minimum sentence, he then pled guilty to all three federal charges. 9 At the resentencing, the district court began its guideline calculation with a base offense level (BOL) of 18, see U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(1) (Unlawful Receipt, Possession, or Transportation of Firearms or Ammunition) (1990), then adopted a revised presentence report (PSR) recommendation that Hardy not receive a two-level downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, see id. § 3E1.1. 1 The court set Hardy's criminal history category (CHC) at III (6 points), by counting four unvacated prior convictions at one point each, see id. § 4A1.1, 2 and adding two points because Hardy was on probation at the time the offense of conviction was committed. The resulting guideline sentencing range (GSR) for Level 18, CHC III, was 33 to 41 months. 10 The district court decided to make an upward departure due to Hardy's ten-year history of grievous antisocial conduct, citing eight reasons: (1) CHC III did not adequately reflect either the seriousness of Hardy's past criminal conduct or the likelihood of recidivism; (2) only one month before the offense of conviction, Hardy had been arrested and charged with another very serious offense--his and Moreno's shooting and attempted murder of a fourteen-year-old boy, Kenneth Walker, at the same Lenox Street Housing Development; (3) Hardy was on bail in the Walker case at the time he committed the offense of conviction; (4) Hardy had been arrested and charged with four violent felonies between 1985 and 1990, including kidnapping and assault and battery, which were not taken into account in the CHC III calculation since the state court charges had been dismissed; (5) Hardy's two prior state court convictions for assault and battery against his girlfriend and another woman had been vacated, not because Hardy was not responsible for the criminal conduct underlying the convictions but due to procedural infirmities at trial; 3 (6) the [two] weapons used ... in this federal case [a sawed-off shotgun and semi-automatic pistol] were particularly dangerous weapons; (7) officers of the Anti-gang Violence Unit attested that the offense of conviction was part of a long series of violent drug-related offenses in the same neighborhood, committed by street gangs like the Columbia Point Dogs, of which Hardy, Moreno, and Fernandes were known members; and (8) the offense of conviction occurred in an economically depressed neighborhood where very vulnerable people live. 11 The district court determined that even a full horizontal departure from Level 18, CHC III (33-41 months), to Level 18, CHC VI (57-71 months), would be inadequate to reflect these eight factors. Accordingly, the court determined upon a vertical upward departure as well, from Level 18, CHC VI (57-71 months) to Level 24, CHC VI (100-125 months). The court gauged its vertical departure through reference to the 121-151 month (Level 32, CHC I) GSR which would have been applicable to Hardy under the then-current (i.e., November 1994) guidelines. 4 Ultimately, the court settled upon the 120-month prison sentence from which Hardy now appeals. II