U.S. v. Elder

Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to below guideline, 260-month term of incarceration on drug conspiracy charge, where said sentence was based, in part, on belief that defendant’s prior Arizona conviction on charge of possession of dangerous drug qualified as felony drug offense for purposes of section 841(b)(1)(A), which subjected defendant to mandatory minimum sentence of 240-month term of incarceration. Arizona conviction did not qualify as felony drug offense under categorical approach, since Arizona’s definition of dangerous drugs contained two drugs not contained in section 802(44). As such, limited remand was required for Dist. Ct. to determine whether it would have imposed same sentence irrespective of instant error under circumstances where applicable guideline range of 365 to 405 months would stay same with or without Arizona conviction, but defendant’s mandatory minimum sentence would be reduced from 20 years to 10 years.