United States v. Gutierrez

In 1996, Defendant Peter Gutierrez pled guilty to two federal firearms offenses. The district court sentenced him to 235 months' imprisonment, the low end of the applicable guideline range. Prior to 2010, the sentencing guidelines provided for two additional criminal history points if a defendant committed the crime at issue within two years of being released from imprisonment. These two "recency" points moved Defendant from criminal history category IV to category V. Defendant argued on appeal that Amendment 742 to the guidelines, which removed the "recency" points from the guidelines, should apply retroactively to his sentence and thereby reduce it. The district court rejected this argument. Following precedent in "United States v. Torres-Aquino," 334 F.3d 939 (10th Cir. 2003), the Tenth Circuit concluded that Amendment 742 was not one of the amendments listed in U.S.S.G. 1B1.10, and therefore Defendant had no right to a reduction in sentence. The Court affirmed the district court's refusal to reduce Defendant's sentence.