U.S. v. K.R.A., 02-1322.

• Decision Date: 24 July 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-1322.,02-1322.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. K.R.A., Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

337 F.3d 970

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. K.R.A., Appellant.

No. 02-1322.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: June 14, 2002.

Filed: July 24, 2003.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Julia M. Dvorak, argued, Aberdeen, SD, for appellant.

Jeannine Huber, argued, Asst. U.S. Atty., Sioux Falls, SD (Randolph J. Seiler, Asst. U.S. Atty., Pierre, SD, on the brief), for appellee.

Before HANSEN,¹ Chief Judge, BOWMAN and BYE, Circuit Judges.

HANSEN, Circuit Judge.

This appeal requires us to examine the statutory sentencing scheme of the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 5031-5042 (2000), as applied to K.R.A., who was adjudicated a juvenile delinquent at the age of 15. After repeatedly violating the conditions of her probation, K.R.A. was eventually placed by the district court² in official detention until her 22nd birthday, essentially a term of approximately 37 months. On appeal, K.R.A. contends her sentence was in error for the following reasons: (1) the district court utilized the wrong statute by imposing the sentence of official detention under 18 U.S.C. § 5037 rather than 18 U.S.C. § 3565; (2) even if § 5037 was the appropriate statute for sentencing a juvenile after revocation of probation, the district court incorrectly applied the statute by relying on K.R.A.'s age at the time her probation was revoked rather than her age at the time it was originally imposed; and (3) the district court abused its discretion in imposing an upward departure. We disagree with each of K.R.A.'s arguments and, therefore, affirm the judgment of the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

K.R.A. was adjudicated a juvenile delinquent at age 15 after she admitted to committing the Class B felony of first-degree burglary by entering an occupied residence at night with the intent to steal. Specifically, on July 17, 1998, K.R.A. and two other individuals entered the home of a woman without permission, stole and destroyed some of the woman's personal property, and caused structural damage to the home. Another female physically assaulted the victim in her bedroom.

At the time of her original juvenile disposition in federal court, K.R.A. already had been charged with several tribal violations and had been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent in the Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal Court. On September 17, 1998, the district court imposed a term of approximately 3-½ years probation (until her 19th birthday-February 20, 2002) and a joint and several restitution obligation. On December 8, 2000, a petition to revoke probation was filed after K.R.A. violated the conditions of her probation by consuming alcohol, eluding law enforcement, stealing a police car, driving a vehicle with a revoked driver's license, and escaping from custody. Acting contrary to what it said was its better judgment, the district court continued K.R.A. on probation but extended it until she reached the age of 21 (February 20, 2004).

On October 15, 2001, a second petition to revoke probation was filed after K.R.A., then age 18, absconded from Glory House, a community treatment facility where she had been placed, and failed to notify her probation officer of her change in residence and employment within 72 hours as required under the conditions of her probation. The district court revoked K.R.A.'s probation and imposed a term of official detention until K.R.A.'s 22nd birthday, February 20, 2005, a revocation sentence, as indicated, of approximately 37 months.

II. DISCUSSION

We review the district court's interpretation of the relevant statutes de novo. United States v. Brings Plenty, 188 F.3d 1051, 1053 (8th Cir.1999). Here, based upon the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 5037(c), the district court concluded it had the authority to sentence K.R.A. to a term of official detention of up to 5 years. Section 5037(c), as it existed at the time of K.R.A.'s revocation proceeding, provides as follows:

The term for which official detention may be ordered for a juvenile found to be a juvenile delinquent may not extend—

(1) in the case of a juvenile who is less than eighteen years old, beyond the lesser of—

(A) the date when the juvenile becomes twenty-one years old; or

(B) the maximum term of imprisonment that would be authorized if the juvenile had been tried and convicted as an adult; or

(2) in the case of a juvenile who is between eighteen and twenty-one years old—

(A) who if convicted as an adult would be convicted of a Class A, B, or C felony, beyond five years; or

(B) in any other case beyond the lesser of—

(i) three years; or

(ii) the maximum term of imprisonment that would be authorized if the juvenile had been tried and convicted as an adult.

In United States v. R.L.C., 503 U.S. 291, 306, 112 S.Ct. 1329, 117 L.Ed.2d 559 (1992), the Supreme Court construed the phrase "`the maximum term of imprisonment that would be authorized if the juvenile had been tried and convicted as an adult'" found in § 5037(c)(1)(B) to mean "the maximum length of sentence to which a similarly situated adult would be subject if convicted of the adult counterpart of the offense and sentenced under the statute requiring application of the Guidelines, [18 U.S.C.] § 3553(b)." The Court made clear that "a sentencing court's concern with the Guidelines goes solely to the upper limit of the proper Guideline range as setting the maximum term for which a juvenile may be committed to official detention, absent circumstances that would warrant a departure under § 3553(b)." Id. at 307, 112 S.Ct. 1329. See also United States v. Juvenile D.T., No. 99-4087, 2000 WL 1694066, at *1 (8th Cir. Nov.14, 2000) (unpublished³) ("When revoking a juvenile defendant's sentence of probation, district courts have authority to resentence the juvenile to a term of imprisonment, but the term may not exceed the maximum term a similarly situated adult convicted of the same offense could receive under the Guidelines."); United States v. A.J., 190 F.3d 873, 875 (8th Cir.1999) ("This means only that a sentencing court may have to consider the Guidelines to determine the upper limit of the sentence which can be imposed on a juvenile, on the basis of the sentencing range the Guidelines provide for an adult.").

The Sentencing Guidelines do not apply to juvenile offenders sentenced under the Federal Juvenile Delinquency Act. USSG § 1B1.12, p.s.; R.L.C., 503 U.S. at 307 n. 7, 112 S.Ct. 1329. The requirement that a district court determine what the sentence for a similarly situated adult defendant could be in order to determine the upper limit of the juvenile's detention "does not require plenary application of the Guidelines to juvenile delinquents." Id. at 307, 112 S.Ct. 1329.

Here, the district court, relying on § 5037(c)(2)(A), concluded that the upper limit of the available period of detention for K.R.A. was 5 years (60 months), because she was 18 at the time of the revocation and would have been convicted of a Class B felony with a maximum statutory sentence of 25 years if she had been convicted as an adult. However, the district court also did a Guidelines analysis and concluded that before consideration of any grounds for an upward departure, a similarly situated adult defendant would have been subject to a Guidelines imprisonment range of 15 to 21 months. The court also determined that an upward departure from that range was warranted to about a 37-month sentence, and used that figure to impose the revocation sentence on K.R.A. of detention until her 22nd birthday.

K.R.A. argues that the district court erred by applying § 5037 instead of § 3565 when revoking her probation. We respectfully disagree. As we have previously stated, and reaffirm now, § 5037 is the starting point for determining a dispositional order in juvenile matters. A.J., 190 F.3d at 875. The court, after finding an individual to be a juvenile delinquent, may suspend the findings of juvenile delinquency, enter an order of restitution, place the juvenile on probation, or commit her to official detention. 18 U.S.C. § 5037(a). Subsection (b) establishes the maximum terms for which probation may be ordered and states that the provisions dealing with probation "in sections 3563, 3564, and 3565 are applicable to an order placing a juvenile on probation." 18 U.S.C. § 5037(b). These referenced sections relate to the granting, modifying, and revoking of probation for adult offenders. Finally, under subsection (c), the statute sets out the maximum terms for which official detention may be ordered. 18 U.S.C. § 5037(c). Notwithstanding subsection (b)'s reference to § 3565 (which governs revocation of an adult offender's probation), we conclude that the juvenile statutory sentencing scheme requires that the maximum terms of detention for juveniles found in subsection (c) must be applied and observed when ordering a juvenile into official detention as a probation revocation sanction.

Our review of the record convinces us that the district court correctly looked at § 5037 for its authority to enter a dispositional order requiring official detention and for determining its maximum length. The court did err, however, in its determination that it could enter an order of up to 5 years of detention. The upper limit of detention for K.R.A., under the Supreme Court's holding in R.L.C., was the Guidelines sentence that a similarly situated adult defendant could have received, absent a departure authorized by § 3553(b), but not to exceed 5 years. Because K.R.A.'s sentence of detention to her 22nd birthday is, as we determine infra, equal to the 37-month prison sentence which a similarly situated adult defendant could have received, the court's error in thinking it could have given K.R.A. 5 years of detention was harmless. We address, infra, K.R.A.'s further argument that the district court's departure decision itself was erroneous.

Notwithstanding our holding that § 5037 establishes the maximum term of detention which can be imposed, § 3565 still should...