LYNCH, Circuit Judge.
Karim Davis challenges his 151-month prison sentence on appeal, after he pled guilty in 2016 to drug crimes, arguing that the district court erred in (1) sentencing him as a career offender based on his prior drug convictions under N.Y. Penal Law §§ 110 and 220.31; and (2) applying the criminal-livelihood enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(15)(E). There was no error, and we affirm his sentence.
After indictment in 2015, Karim Davis pled guilty in August 2016 to two counts of drug trafficking: (1) possession with intent to distribute heroin and cocaine base and (2) conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute the same, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), and 846. The first count arose from crimes alleged in Davis's 2015 indictment, and the second, from an information the Government filed in 2016 based on Davis's alleged conspiracy to distribute drugs from April 2014 to June 2015.
The Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) found Davis responsible for 479 grams of heroin and 31.4 grams of cocaine base. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, this merited a base offense level of 26. The PSR recommended a two-level enhancement because the offense was "part of a pattern of criminal conduct engaged in as a livelihood," U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(15)(E); and an additional three-level increase for Davis's leadership role as a manager or a supervisor,
However, the PSR indicated that the career-offender guideline under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(b) governed Davis's total offense level because he had "at least two prior felony convictions of ... a controlled substance offense." The report identified his first predicate offense as a criminal sale of a controlled substance, in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31, and his second predicate offense as an attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance, in violation of N.Y. Penal Law § 110.
Section 4B1.1(b) of the Guidelines states that "if the offense level for a career offender from the table in this subsection is greater than the offense level otherwise applicable, the offense level from the table in this subsection shall apply." It also mandates that "[a] career offender's criminal history category in every case under this subsection shall be Category VI."
For Davis's offense, the career-offender guideline prescribed an offense level of 32.
At the sentencing hearing, the district court adopted the PSR's recommendation over Davis's objections. The judge also found that Davis qualified for the criminal-livelihood enhancement, but emphasized that "the same guideline range would occur regardless of what [he found] on that
On appeal, Davis argues that his two prior drug convictions under New York law do not constitute predicate offenses under the Guidelines career-offender provision, U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. "Whether a prior conviction qualifies as a predicate offense under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 is a question of law that we review de novo."
Davis's first argument, that his conviction under N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31 is not a "controlled substance offense" under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1, is foreclosed by this Court's precedent in
Under the career-offender provision, a "controlled substance offense" includes any offense under state law that "prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance," or "the possession of a controlled substance" with "intent" to do the same. U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b). And under N.Y. Penal Law § 220.31, a person commits a criminal sale in the fifth degree "when he knowingly and unlawfully sells a controlled substance," which includes "to sell, exchange, give or dispose of to another, or
Davis's second argument, that a conviction for attempted criminal sale of a controlled substance under N.Y. Penal Law § 110 does not qualify as a predicate offense, is also meritless. Section 110 provides that "[a] person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime when, with intent to commit a crime, he engages in conduct which tends to effect the commission of such crime." Although the statutory language is broad, New York courts have narrowly applied it only to conduct that "came `dangerously near' commission of the completed crime."
Davis contends that allowing a conviction under N.Y. Penal Law § 110 to qualify as a predicate offense stretches the Guidelines' definition of a "controlled substance offense" too far because it would sweep in
We disagree. Davis cites no authority for the proposition that under the categorical approach, we are restricted to examining elements of the inchoate crime, without reference to the corollary substantive crime. In fact, our precedent is to the contrary.
"[I]t is well established under New York law" that conviction for offer to sell requires "a bona fide offer to sell — i.e., that defendant had both the intent and ability to proceed with the sale."
That ends the matter. The district court correctly sentenced Davis under the career-offender guideline.
Davis also alleges that the district court erred in finding that he qualified for the criminal-livelihood enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.3. Not so.
Because the district court correctly sentenced Davis as a career offender, the criminal-livelihood enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(15)(E) had no impact on his final sentence. Irrespective of that enhancement, Davis is subject to the offense level set forth in § 4B1.1(b)(3) — 32 — and its corresponding GSR: 151-188 months of imprisonment. Any error, therefore, would have been harmless.
In any case, Davis's only rejoinder to the enhancement — that the district court did not consider the "costs of the product sold or the amount of mark up the defendant, in fact, received" — is squarely foreclosed by our recent decision in
Accordingly, the district court's sentence is