U.S. v. Ortega-Galvan

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 41-month term of incarceration on charge of entering U.S. without permission after having been removed. Dist. Ct. erred in re-calculating appropriate sentencing guideline from 57-to-71 month range to 41-to-51 month range based on finding that one of defendant's prior convictions was improperly classified as felony since Dist. Ct. could not treat any aspect of defendant's prior conviction as "invalid" because said conviction had not been successfully challenged via collateral review. However, error was harmless since Dist. Ct. was free to depart from applicable 57-to71-month sentencing range (where his sentencing range had been elevated because of erroneous conviction), and while defendant claimed that appropriate sentence was in zero to six-month range, instant sentence was reasonable given fact that defendant had re-entered U.S. illegally on two occasions.