United States v. Ridens, 14–3221.

• Decision Date: 10 July 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–3221.,14–3221.
• Citation: 792 F.3d 1270
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Ryan RIDENS, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

792 F.3d 1270

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee
v.
Ryan RIDENS, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 14–3221.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

July 10, 2015.

792 F.3d 1271

Submitted on the Briefs: Melanie S. Morgan, Morgan Pilate LLC, Kansas City, MO, for Appellant.

James A. Brown, Assistant United States Attorney (Barry R. Grissom, United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Office of the United States Attorney, Topeka, KS, for Appellee.

Before HARTZ, BALDOCK, and TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judges.

Opinion

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

After pleading guilty to a gun offense, Ryan Ridens received the fifteen-year mandatory-minimum sentence enhancement established by the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) for certain felons with three or more prior convictions for “violent felon[ies]” or “serious drug offense[s].” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). He claims, however, the district court erred in imposing the enhancement because (1) a burglary conviction used to trigger the sentence should not have counted as a “violent felony” because there was insufficient proof that it was a qualifying burglary within the meaning of the ACCA, and (2) triggering the mandatory minimum with the judicially found fact of his three prior qualifying convictions violated the Sixth Amendment.

But there is ample proof the burglary conviction was a qualifying burglary. The conviction was based on a “generically limited charging document”—i.e., one that “narrowed the charges to the generic limit,” Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 17, 21, 125 S.Ct. 1254, 161 L.Ed.2d 205 (2005), and, because Ridens pleaded guilty to a charging document that described the elements of a generic burglary conviction, he committed a qualifying violent felony. And, as he concedes, his Sixth Amendment challenge is foreclosed by Supreme Court precedent.

Thus, exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a), we AFFIRM.

I. Background

The relevant facts are straightforward. Ridens pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). After finding Ridens had three prior felony convictions for either a violent felony or serious drug offense, the district court applied the ACCA enhancement at sentencing. Ridens objected to the characterization of a past Kansas burglary conviction as a violent felony and to the use of judge-found facts to trigger an enhanced sentence.¹

792 F.3d 1272

II. Analysis

A. Kansas Burglary Conviction

We review de novo “whether a defendant's prior conviction qualifies as a violent felony under the ACCA.” United States v. Cartwright, 678 F.3d 907, 909 (10th Cir.2012). The ACCA establishes a fifteen-year mandatory-minimum sentence for any defendant who unlawfully possesses a firearm after three or more convictions for either “a violent felony or a serious drug offense.” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). The statute explicitly lists burglary as a qualifying violent felony. Id. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). Because Ridens only attacks the district court's determination that the Kansas burglary conviction was a qualifying violent felony, the only question is whether that burglary conviction indeed qualifies.

This analysis is simple when a state's definition of burglary fits the “generic” definition of burglary—“an unlawful or unprivileged entry into, or remaining in, a building or other structure, with intent to commit a crime.” United States v. Trent, 767 F.3d 1046, 1053 (10th Cir.2014), cert. denied, ––– U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 1447, 191 L.Ed.2d 400 (2015). In such cases, we apply the “categorical approach, which looks only at the elements of the statute under which the defendant was convicted.” Id. at 1052 (internal quotation marks omitted). The inquiry ends if the definition tracks the generic definition.

Complications may arise when burglary is defined differently and more broadly than that generic definition—that is, the definition is “divisible.” Descamps v. United States, ––– U.S. ––––, 133 S.Ct. 2276, 2281, 186 L.Ed.2d 438 (2013). These definitions “set[ ] out one or more elements of the offense in the alternative—for example stating that burglary involves entry into a building or an automobile.” Id. At the time of Ridens's conviction, Kansas defined burglary as “knowingly and without authority entering into or remaining within any building, mobile home, tent or other structure, or any motor vehicle, aircraft, watercraft, railroad car or other means of conveyance of persons or property, with intent to commit a felony therein.” Kan. Stat. Ann. § 21–3715 (1981). Accordingly, this burglary conviction “cannot as a categorical matter provide a basis for enhancement under the ACCA.” Cartwright, 678 F.3d at 912.

Instead, we apply a “modified categorical approach” to “identify, from among several alternatives, the crime of conviction” for comparison to “the generic offense” to determine whether this particular conviction qualifies. Descamps, 133 S.Ct. at 2285. Because the conviction arose from a guilty plea, we ask whether the “plea of guilty to burglary defined by a nongeneric statute necessarily admitted [the] elements of the generic offense.”Shepard, 544 U.S. at 26, 125 S.Ct. 1254. In answering that question, we may look to a variety of documents, including “charging documents, plea agreements,” and “transcripts of plea colloquies.” Cartwright, 678 F.3d at 912. Often, a helpful document will be a “statement of factual basis for the charge ... shown by a transcript of plea colloquy or by written plea agreement presented to the court, or by a record of comparable findings of fact adopted by the defendant upon entering the plea.” Shepard, 544 U.S. at 20, 125 S.Ct. 1254.

But it suffices if a defendant pleaded guilty to a “generically limited charging document”—i.e., one that “narrowed the...