UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kevin A. DAVIS, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 13-3456.
United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.
May 28, 2014
769 F.3d 769
Argued: March 14, 2014.
Before: GRIFFIN, WHITE, and STRANCH, Circuit Judges.
OPINION
GRIFFIN, Circuit Judge.
Defendant Kevin Davis pleaded guilty to one count of distributing child pornography in violation of
I.
In mid-March 2012, defendant uploaded images to his Microsoft SkyDrive, a cloud-storage system. Some of the images were of nude minor boys, and others included nude minor boys engaged in sexually explicit conduct. Subsequently, defendant sent an email to others inviting them to
As for Count I, a person convicted of distributing child pornography is subject to a mandatory minimum of five years’ imprisonment and a maximum of twenty years’ imprisonment unless the person “has a prior conviction . . . under the laws of any State relating to aggravated sexual abuse, sexual abuse, or abusive sexual conduct involving a minor or ward, or the production, possession, receipt, mailing, sale, distribution, shipment, or transportation of child pornography, or sex trafficking of children,” in which case the minimum sentence is fifteen years’ imprisonment to forty years’ imprisonment.
The presentence report (PSR) found that defendant had “two or more separate
The district court held its sentencing hearing on March 25, 2013. The district court ultimately concluded that the 1989 sexual battery conviction did not trigger the mandatory minimums, but that the 2002 attempted pandеring conviction did. Regarding the 1989 sexual battery conviction, the district court noted that none of the documents it was permitted to examine contained the victim‘s age, nor was the court convinced that it was permitted to take judicial notice of the victim‘s birth certificate under Taylor1 or Shepard.2 Regarding the 2002 attempted pandering conviction, the district court found: (1) that an attempted crime “relat[es] to” the types of crimes listed as triggering offenses in
[W]hen we look at those specific findings of the [state] Court, which I‘m permitted to look at and consider . . . the Defendant‘s conviction for the attempted pandering . . . does trigger the enhancement.
Now, keep in mind that we only need one predicate offense for enhancements of both sections in all three counts. Doesn‘t have to be both the [1989] sexual battery and the [2002] attempted pandering . . . conviction.
So I find for the Defendant on the first conviction [1989 sexual battery] but I find for the Government on the second one [2002 attempted pandering]. And because I find for the government on the second one, we do have the mandatory minimums for Counts 1 and 2 and 3.
The district court then turned to the five-level pattern-of-activity enhancement. The court found that in defendant‘s writtеn statement from the 1989 sexual battery case, he admitted to orally penetrating a minor male child “about ten times,” which the district court characterized as a “pattern of activity that qualifies.” Defendant objected to these findings, contending that the district court was required to rely on evidence that was “tested in court” and not on a confession.
Ultimately, the court imposed a sentence of 262 months’ imprisonment on Count I, and 240 months on Counts II and III, to be servеd concurrently.
II.
We review sentences “for reasonableness, which, we have determined, has both procedural and substantive components.” United States v. Thomas, 498 F.3d 336, 339 (6th Cir.2007) (citation and quotation marks omitted). Here, defendant challenges the procedural reasonableness of his sentence. A sentence is procedurally unreasonable if, among other things, the district court “fail[s] to calculate (or improperly calculate[s]) the Guidelines range, treat[s] the Guidеlines as mandatory, fail[s] to consider the
However, even if a procedural sentencing error occurs, that error is not subject to remand for resentencing if the error is harmless. See United States v. Hazelwood, 398 F.3d 792, 801 (6th Cir.2005). Sentencing errors are harmless where this court is convinced that the “error at sentencing did not cause the defendant to receive a more severe sentence” than would have existed without the error. United States v. Gillis, 592 F.3d 696, 699 (6th Cir.2009) (citation omitted).
When determining whether a party has adequately preserved a claim for appeal, this court examines the record “with an eye to the realities оf the facts and circumstances of each sentencing proceeding.” United States v. Morgan, 687 F.3d 688, 694 (6th Cir.2012) (quotation marks omitted).
Regarding the mandatory minimums, defendant argues that he is entitled to relief under two Supreme Court cases: Alleyne v. United States, — U.S. —, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013) and Descamps v. United States, — U.S. —, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013). Descamps addressed permissible uses of court documents in deciding whether a defendant‘s prior conviction triggers a mandatory minimum. Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2287-92. By contrast, Alleyne addressed whether facts that increased the mandatory minimum sentence were required to be found by a jury, rather than a judge, extending the Court‘s holding in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). Alleyne, 133 S.Ct. at 2155. However, defеndant‘s sole argument below with regard to the mandatory minimums was that neither his 1989 sexual battery conviction nor his 2002 attempted pandering conviction were sufficient to trigger the mandatory minimums under Shepard and Taylor. Defendant failed to adequately develop any argument under Apprendi. Accordingly, defendant‘s arguments under Descamps fall within the ambit of an issue properly preserved for appellate review. His argu-
As to defendant‘s argument rеgarding the pattern-of-activity enhancement, we conclude that defendant properly preserved this issue for appellate review. Defendant objected to the PSR‘s recommendation that the enhancement be imposed and raised the issue separately at sentencing.
III.
Defendant first argues that, under Alleyne, the district court erred by finding that defendant‘s 2002 attempted pandering conviction triggered the mandatory minimum sentence where Alleyne instructs that such a finding be made by a jury, not the judgе. We disagree.
In Apprendi, 530 U.S. at 490, the Supreme Court held that “facts that increase the prescribed range of penalties to which a criminal defendant is exposed” are elements of the crime, and therefore the defendant has the right to have those facts found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. In Alleyne, 133 S.Ct. at 2155, the Court held that “[m]andatory minimum sentences increase the penalty for a crime. It follows, then, that [under Apprendi] any fact that increases the mandatory minimum is an ‘element’ that must be submitted to the jury.” Alleyne, 133 S.Ct. at 2155. However—and critically—the Alleyne Court specifically noted that:
In Almendarez-Torres v. United States, 523 U.S. 224 [118 S.Ct. 1219, 140 L.Ed.2d 350] (1998), we recognized a narrow exception to [Apprendi‘s] general rule for the fact of a prior conviction [namely, that the fact of a prior conviction can be found by a judge by a preponderance of the evidence]. Because the parties do not contest that decision‘s vitality, we do not revisit it for purposes of our decision today.
Id. at 2160 n. 1. In other words, the fact of a prior conviction, such as defendant‘s 2002 attempted pandering conviction, can still be found by a judge by a preponderance of the evidence, as occurred here. Indeed, this court has already rejected an argument identical to defendant‘s in another case. See United States v. Keglar, 535 Fed.Appx. 494, 495 (6th Cir.2013). Accordingly, the district court did not commit plain error by failing to submit to a jury the fact of defendant‘s 2002 attempted pandering conviction. To the extent that Davis argues that the district court went beyond the fact of his prior conviction and engaged in judicial faсtfinding, we address this under our Descamps analysis below.
Next, defendant argues that his 2002 attempted pandering conviction cannot serve as a triggering offense for the mandatory minimums “because the pandering statute is indivisible.” Although we disagree with defendant that the statute is indivisible, we nonetheless agree with him that the district court erred in concluding that defendant‘s prior convictions trigger the mandatory minimums in
Summarizing the Supreme Court‘s decisions in Taylor and Shepard, this court has explained that:
[I]n determining the nature of a defendant‘s prior conviction, we apply a “categorical” approach, meaning that we look at the statutory definition of the crime of conviction, not the facts underlying that conviction, to determine the nature of the crime. [In a narrow class of cases,] we may look at the indictment, guilty plea and similar documents to see if they “necessarily” establish the nature
of the prior offense. Reference to such documents is often referred to as the “modified categorical approach.”
United States v. Johnson, 675 F.3d 1013, 1016-17 (6th Cir.2012) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). See also Taylor, 495 U.S. at 600-02 (establishing the categorical and modified categorical approaches); Shepard, 544 U.S. at 26 (limiting the types of material a court can consider under the modified categorical approach); Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2283-84 (summarizing Taylor and Shepard). This court has applied the Taylor/Shepard approach to the statutory minimums at issue here. See United States v. McGrattan, 504 F.3d 608, 612 (6th Cir.2007).
The purpose of the modified categorical approach is to establish “whether the court documents establish that the defendant ‘necessarily admitted’ the elements [or was convicted] of a predicate offense.” United States v. Medina-Almaguer, 559 F.3d 420, 423 (6th Cir.2009) (quoting Shepard, 544 U.S. at 16). In Descamps, the Supreme Court held that the modified categorical approach applies only to divisible statutes—that is, statutes that
set[] out one or more elements of the offense in the alternative—for example, stating that burglary involves entry into a building or an automobile. If one alternative (say, a building) matches an element in the generic offense, but the other (say, an automobile) does not, the modified categorical approach permits sentencing courts to consult a limited class of documents, such as indictments and jury instructions, to determine which alternative formed the basis of the defendant‘s prior conviction. The court can then do what the categorical approach demands: compare the elements of the crime of conviction (including the alternative element used in the case) with the elements of the generic crime.
The Descamps Court emphasized, however, that the modified categorical approach “does not authorize a sentencing court to substitute a facts-based inquiry for an elements-based one. A court may use the modified approach only to determine which alternative element in a divisible statute formed the basis of the defendant‘s conviction” and may not rely on the underlying facts of the offense beyond the extent to which they help the court identify which elements of the statute were at issue in the prior conviction. Id. at 2293. Indeed, as this court has held, when applying the modified categorical approach, a court must first “ask whether the statute at issue is divisible.... If so, as part of the modified categorical ‘step,’ the court may look to the Shepard documents—but only to see which alternative version of the offense is at issue.” United States v. Covington, 738 F.3d 759, 763 (6th Cir.2014).
The Supreme Court in Descamps explained that it was not announcing a new rule, but was simply reaffirming the Taylor/Shepard approach, which some courts had misconstrued. Id. at 2283 (“Our case-law explaining the categorical approach and its ‘modified’ counterpart all but resolves this case.“); see also Shepard, 544 U.S. at 25 (explaining that it is not the role of district courts, when engaged in the modified categorical approach, to “make a disputed finding of fact about what the defendant and the state judge must have understood as the factual basis” of the prior conviction). In reversing the Ninth Circuit, Descamps criticized that court for impermissibly “turn[ing] an elements-based inquiry into an evidence-based one.” Id. at 2287.
Here, dеfendant was convicted in 2002 in Ohio state court of attempting to pander obscenity involving a minor. The Ohio statute criminalizing pandering obscenity,
Defendant‘s conviction under
[i]t contains a series of displays or descriptions of [inter alia], nudity .... the cumulative effect of which is a dominant tendency to appeal to prurient or scatological interest, when the appeal to such an interest is primarily for its own sake or for commercial exploitation, rather than primarily for a genuine scientific, educational, sociological, moral, or artistic purpose.
The government argues (and the district court found) that because the Ohio Judgment Entry of Sentence as to the 2002 attempted pandering conviction does, in fact, list the victims’ ages as 9 and 11 and found that the images at issue in that case were of children engaged in sex acts, the 2002 attempted pandering conviction triggers the mandatory minimums. However, as the Supreme Court held, such an analysis impermissibly “turns an elements-based approach into an evidence-based one. It asks not whether ‘statutory definitions’ necessarily require an adjudicator to find the generic offense, but instead whether the prosecutor‘s case realistically led the adjudicator to make that determination.” Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2287. Accordingly, the district court erred when it ruled that “I‘m permitted tо look at and consider . . . [the state court‘s] explicit findings” regarding the content of the images seized pursuant to the 2002 attempted pandering case. Indeed, under Shepard, Taylor, and Descamps, what actually occurred in the prior offense is irrelevant
Having concluded that the district court erred, we must next determine whether its error was harmless. We conclude it was not. Regarding Count I, the statutory maximum without a prior triggering offense is 20 years, or 240 months.
The government argues that we should affirm on the alternative basis that the 1989 sexual battery conviction need not involve a minor to qualify as a predicate offense under
IV.
Finally, defendant argues that the district court erred by adding a five-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2(b)(5). We disagree.
The enhancement under § 2G2.2(b)(5) applies when a defendant “engage[s] in a pattern of activity involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor.” The Guidelines define a “pattern of activity involving the sexual аbuse or exploitation of a minor” as
any combination of two or more separate instances of the sexual abuse or sexual exploitation of a minor by the defendant, whether or not the abuse or exploitation (A) occurred during the course of the offense; (B) involved the same minor; or (C) resulted in a conviction for such conduct.
U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2, cmt. n.1. Unlike with the mandatory minimums, the district court is permitted to find facts supporting the pattern-of-activity enhancement by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Denson, 728 F.3d 603, 614 (6th Cir.2013). Accordingly, the district court is not limited to Shepard-approved documents in making this determination, so long as the information it relies on is “reliable.” Id. In other words, the sentencing court must find that the information “has sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy.” United States v. Hunt, 487 F.3d 347, 352 (6th Cir.2007) (quoting U.S.S.G. § 6A1.3(a)).
Here, the district court found that defendant‘s written statement from his 1989 sexual battery conviction—in which defendant admitted performing oral sex on a boy he babysat on about ten occasions—was sufficient on its own to support the pattern-of-activity enhancement. We agree. The confession was written by defendant, signed by defendant, was voluntary, and contained sufficient detail of the crimes to which defendant ultimately pleaded guilty. Accordingly, the district court did not abuse its discretion by applying the pattern-of-activity enhancement.
V.
For these reasons, we reverse defendant‘s sentence and remand for resentencing consistent with this opinion.
