United States v. Willie Dillard

MEMORANDUM

Willie Allen Dillard challenges the district court’s decision to apply the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”) enhancement at his sentencing on his conviction of felon-in-possession of a firearm. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 (a)(1), and we affirm.

Dillard’s basic contention is that one of the predicate convictions supporting the district court’s application of the ACCA enhancement — a conviction obtained when Dillard was seventeen years old after a Nevada juvenile court had certified him to be tried as an adult — is not a “prior conviction” within the meaning of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 , 120 S.Ct. 2348 , 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). We disagree. Dillard does not deny that this conviction was obtained in state-court criminal proceedings that afforded him every necessary procedural protection; the conviction is therefore subject to the exception to Apprendi’s general holding. See United States v. Pacheco-Zepeda, 234 F.3d 411, 415 (9th Cir.2000) (‘Apprendi held that all prior convictions — not just those admitted on the record — were exempt from Appren-di’s general rule and ... may continue to be treated as sentencing…