United States v. Lorenzo Maria-Gonzalez

Lorenzo Maria-Gonzalez pleaded guilty to being a deported alien found in the United States, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (1994 Supp. V). The district court sentenced him to 63 months’ imprisonment, followed by 24 months’ supervised release. Maria-Gonzalez appeals his sentence. He argues that the district court erred in classifying his prior conviction as an aggravated felony when enhancing his sentence pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b)(2); and under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 , 120 S.Ct. 2348 , 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), the government was required to prove his prior conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.

We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1994) and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 (1994), and we affirm. For the reasons set forth below, we remand to the district court solely for the ministerial purpose of correcting the judgment of conviction to strike a reference to 8 U.S.C. § 1326 (b)(2).

I.

In 1992, Maria-Gonzalez, a citizen of Mexico, was convicted in California state court of receiving stolen property and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. After being paroled in 1993, he was deported.

Some time after his deportation, Maria-Gonzalez returned to the United States.…