United States v. Antonio Urrutia-Contreras

Defendant-appellant Antonio UrrutiaContreras appeals from a 15 month sentence for violation of the terms of his supervised release, which was imposed by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California to run consecutively to a 12 month sentence for illegal re-entry in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and vacate the consecutive sentence and remand.

I.

The procedural history in this case is unusual. In September 2011, after pleading guilty to a charge of illegal re-entry in the District of Arizona, defendant was sentenced to 15 months of imprisonment followed by a 3 year period of supervised release. That sentence was based on a Guideline offense level (after a fast-track reduction) of 10 and a criminal history of IV, resulting in an advisory Guideline sentence of between 15 and 21 months of imprisonment. The court sentenced defendant to the low end of the Guideline range.

As the government now concedes, however, the offense level for that sentence was erroneously computed because it was increased by 8 points based on a prior aggravated felony, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.2(b)(l)(C). Defendant’s prior…