United States v. Ronald J. Klump

We are asked whether, at resentencing, a trial court may count an unrelated sentence imposed after the original sentence as a “prior sentence.” We answer that it may and we affirm.

I

Sometime before April, 1992, Klump conspired to murder Pamela Norman. In 1993, he pleaded guilty in state court to this offense.

In October, 1992, he pleaded guilty in federal court to threatening a law enforcement officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm and was sentenced. He appealed his sentence and, in 1994, we remanded for re-sentencing. When the district court resen-tenced, it included the unrelated 1993 state conviction as a “prior sentence” under U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4) and enhanced his sentence. He appeals.

II

Klump argues that the date of his original sentencing is a “watershed” date, after which additional sentences may not be construed or counted as “prior sentences” at resentencing. We review de novo an interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines. United States v. Buenrostro-Torres, 24 F.3d 1173, 1174 (9th Cir.1994).

No court has addressed this issue. The Guidelines do not provide guidance for the specific problem here; they define a prior sentence as “a sentence imposed…