U.S. v. Bravo

Ct. of Appeals addressed appeals by three defendants, who challenged their sentences in connection with their membership in Latin Kings gang. With respect to one defendant, Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to 108-month term of incarceration, where said sentence was based, in part, on two misdemeanor convictions under Illinois “street gang contact” statute that were added to defendant’s criminal history score. While under relevant guidelines, all prior felony and misdemeanor convictions are presumptively counted in criminal history score, prior convictions are counted only if: (1) their sentences involved terms of probation of more than one year or sentences that concerned 30-days or greater; or (2) prior offense was similar to certain enumerated offenses. Here, defendant’s misdemeanor convictions did not involve either instance. With respect to second defendant, whose sentence was enhanced by Dist. Ct’s finding that defendant had murdered rival gang member by preponderance of evidence, defendant noted that he was acquitted of criminal charge related to said murder and argued that Dist. Ct. improperly relied on certain post-arrest statement by third-party that attributed murder to defendant. Ct. of Appeals, though, held that said statement could be used by Dist. Ct. to support it’s preponderance of evidence finding. Dist. Ct. could also reject defendant’s request for downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, where defendant had denied murder allegation. With respect to third defendant, Ct. rejected defendant’s claim that his 200-month sentence was substantively unreasonable given his depression diagnosis and his strong employment history, since Dist. Ct. could have based said sentence on defendant’s extensive gang activity and leadership. Moreover, Dist. Ct.’s inclusion of two non-violent marijuana convictions in defendant’s conviction score did not require different result, where deduction of said convictions from his score would still have produced guideline range of 210-262 months, which was greater than actual sentence.