United States v. Paul Michael Mooneyham

On July 17, 1989, Paul Michael Mooney-ham pleaded guilty to two counts of unarmed bank robbery. The presentence report concluded that Mooneyham was entitled to a two-level reduction in his Sentencing Guidelines offense level for acceptance of responsibility and determined the level to be 19. However, because Mooneyham qualified as a career offender, Guidelines section 4B1.1 required that his offense level be 32 and that his criminal history category be YI. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 (1990). These factors placed the sentencing range at 210-262 months.

On October 25, 1989, the district court sentenced Mooneyham to two concurrent terms of 236 months each, followed by five years of supervised release. The court rejected Mooneyham’s argument that the offense level of 32 set by section 4B1.1 should have been reduced by two points to reflect his acceptance of responsibility. Mooneyham appeals his sentence, arguing that a subsequent amendment to section 4B1.1 requires that his sentence take into account his acceptance of responsibility. We affirm.

I

Construction of the Sentencing Guidelines is a question of law that we review de novo. United States v. Summers, 895 F.2d 615, 617 (9th Cir.),…