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Burglary Conviction at Age 17 Qualified as Career Offender Predicate

By Shari Allison

US v. Collins, No. 06-6191, 4/11/08 - The third time was something of a charm for the defendant in a drug conspiracy case. He was originally convicted of all nine counts following a jury trial. He was seventeen when he committed a second-degree burglary, which was treated at sentencing as a crime of violence, which made him a career offender, which got him a sentence of 360 months. His conviction was affirmed but his sentence was vacated because the government had not established that the burglary conviction was in fact a crime of violence. On remand, the defendant stipulated that he had signed an affidavit that stated that the conviction involved a dwelling, so he got the same career offender sentence of 360 months. He did not appeal that, but instead filed a pro se 2255 motion, which was granted on the basis that he received ineffective assistance because his lawyer did not take an appeal from the second sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Tenth Circuit Blog on April 11, 2008 (boomark / email).