State v. O'Connor, 326 P.3d 1064

Gregory A. O’Connor pled nolo contendere to several Kansas offenses and had a prior Florida juvenile adjudication for third-degree burglary.
The Kansas PSI classified the Florida juvenile adjudication as a person felony (dwelling burglary) for KSGA criminal-history scoring, increasing O’Connor’s guideline range and leading to an aggregate 144-month term.
O’Connor objected that his Florida adjudication was for third-degree burglary (which, under Florida law, applies to non-dwelling structures) and therefore should be classified as a nonperson felony under Kansas law.
The district court overruled the objection; the Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed after permitting Kansas courts to rely on underlying factual allegations (police report and mother’s letter) to find the structure was a dwelling by a preponderance of the evidence.
The Kansas Supreme Court granted review to decide whether K.S.A. 21-4711(e) permits reclassification based on facts not essential to the out-of-state adjudication.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether an out-of-state juvenile adjudication must be classified according to the actual adjudicated offense, not by judicial factfinding about additional facts	O’Connor: Kansas must use the crime for which he was actually adjudicated (third-degree burglary), which excludes dwellings and therefore is a nonperson felony	State: Kansas may use comparable Kansas offenses and may establish underlying facts (by preponderance) to classify the out-of-state adjudication as person or nonperson	Held: Use the offense actually adjudicated. Kansas may not use additional judicial factfinding to elevate the out-of-state adjudication to a different, higher-category crime; classify as nonperson felony.

State v. Taylor, 262 Kan. 471 (statutory interpretation of sentencing guidelines is reviewed de novo)
State v. Vandervort, 276 Kan. 164 (questions of law on KSGA interpretation reviewed without deference)
State v. Gracey, 288 Kan. 252 (district court’s KSGA application is a legal issue reviewed de novo)
State v. Roose, 41 Kan. App. 2d 435 (dwelling burglaries are person felonies; nondwelling burglaries are nonperson felonies)
Arnett v. State, 290 Kan. 41 (legislative intent and statutory construction govern sentencing provisions)
Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 (distinguishing proof-of-conviction issues from elements requiring jury proof)
Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254 (limits on judicial factfinding to increase sentence based on prior convictions)