NC Second-Degree Kidnapping Is Crime of Violence

US v. Flores-Granados: Flores-Granados was convicted of second-degree kidnapping in North Carolina in 2007, after which he was deported to his native Honduras. In 2013, he was found in Virginia and eventually pleaded guilty to reentering the country illegally. At issue at sentencing was whether his prior conviction was an "aggravated felony" or "crime of violence" under 2L1.2(b)(1), resulting in an enhancement of either 8 or 16 offense levels. The district court concluded that the conviction was a crime of violence, based on the actual facts underlying the conviction (Flores-Granados broke into a home, threatened the use of a gun, and stabbed the victim with a screwdriver) that showed "the type of violent conduct which justifies the 16-point enhancement."

Flores-Granados appealed his sentence, which the Fourth Circuit affirmed. Although it agreed (and the Government conceded) that the district court erred by analyzing the underlying facts of the prior conviction, rather than the elements or (at most) the Shepard-approved documents, the district court's ultimate conclusion was correct. The court noted that kidnapping is a specifically listed "crime of violence" in the Guidelines and that the elements of second-degree burglary as defined by the North Carolina courts, fall within the generic definition of burglary contemplated by the Guidelines. As the court concluded, "[p]ut simply, the statute is what we mean when we say 'kidnapping.'"