United States v. Francisco Rangel-Navarro

Francisco Rangel-Navarro challenges his sentence under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which the district court entered following his plea of guilty to being a deported alien found in the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. section 1326 . Rangel-Navarro contends that a civil declaration of wardship by a California Juvenile Court does not constitute a criminal sentence for the purposes of a two-point increase in his criminal history rating pursuant to Guideline section 4A1.2(d). Guideline section 4A1.2(d), read in conjunction with Application Note 7 concerning offenses committed prior to age eighteen, guides this court’s decision. Therefore we affirm.

On May 11, 1987, Rangel-Navarro was arrested in San Francisco, California for assault with a deadly weapon, a violation of California Penal Code section 245(a)(1). On May 20, 1987, Rangel-Navarro admitted the violation in California Juvenile Court. Pursuant to California Welfare and Institutions Code section 602, the juvenile court committed Rangel-Navarro to ninety days in custody in Juvenile Hall and ordered that he be released to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (“INS”) for return to Mexico. The juvenile…