United States v. Davon Coppage, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS 22571

Coppage pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)) and faced a PSR that assigned him an offense level of 19 and a Guidelines range of 63–78 months.
The PSR included five consolidated 2010 Kansas City, Missouri municipal-court convictions (from five arrests in 2008–2009) that together contributed 10 of his 15 criminal-history points, placing him in Category VI.
Electronic 2010 conviction records did not list defense counsel or a written waiver of counsel; separate 2012 records do list counsel names.
Coppage objected at sentencing, arguing the 2010 convictions were obtained in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to counsel and Missouri law because no counsel or waiver was recorded.
The district court overruled the objection, citing (1) the presumption of regularity for final judgments, (2) probation officer testimony that municipal-court practice was to advise of right to counsel, and (3) Coppage’s failure to produce affirmative evidence rebutting regularity; Coppage was sentenced to 63 months.

Issue	Coppage's Argument	Government's Argument	Held
Whether five prior municipal convictions used for sentencing were constitutionally infirm for lack of recorded counsel/waiver	The absence of counsel names or a written waiver in 2010 records shows convictions violated the Sixth Amendment and Missouri law	Presumption of regularity attaches to final judgments; defendant must prove constitutional infirmity; municipal court practices and lack of rebutting evidence support validity	Court held Coppage failed to prove the convictions were obtained in violation of his right to counsel and affirmed their use for sentencing

Moore v. United States, 178 F.3d 994 (8th Cir. 1999) (standard for collateral attack on prior convictions used at sentencing)
United States v. Levering, 431 F.3d 289 (8th Cir. 2005) (narrow exception for attacking prior convictions obtained without counsel)
United States v. Reyes-Solano, 543 F.3d 474 (8th Cir. 2008) (defendant bears preponderance burden to prove prior conviction unconstitutional)
Parke v. Raley, 506 U.S. 20 (1992) (presumption of regularity attaches to final judgments)
Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25 (1972) (Sixth Amendment right to counsel where incarceration is imposed)
United States v. Charles, 389 F.3d 797 (8th Cir. 2004) (defendant must offer additional evidence beyond ambiguous records to rebut validity)
United States v. Ramon-Rodriguez, 492 F.3d 930 (8th Cir. 2007) (failure to allege absence of counsel insufficient to meet burden)