United States v. Jose Parks

United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT
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No. 06-4051
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United States of America, *
*
Appellee, *
* Appeal from the United States
v. * District Court for the
* Eastern District of Missouri.
Jose Parks, *
* [UNPUBLISHED]
Appellant. *
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Submitted: September 28, 2007
Filed: October 4, 2007
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Before LOKEN, Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and RILEY, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
The district court1 concluded Jose Parks (Parks) was a career offender under
United States Sentencing Guideline § 4B1.1 based on Parks’s prior felony convictions
for escape and possession of a controlled substance with the intent to deliver. Parks
appeals, arguing the district court erred in (1) applying the preponderance of the
evidence standard, rather than the beyond a reasonable doubt standard, to determine
whether Parks’s prior convictions qualify as crimes of violence or controlled
substance offenses, and (2) concluding Parks’s escape conviction qualifies as a crime
1
The Honorable E. Richard Webber, United States District Judge for the Eastern
District of Missouri.
of violence. We disagree. “Determining whether a prior conviction is a ‘crime of
violence’ for § 4B1.2 purposes is a question of law, not a question of fact found by the
judge.” United States v. Bockes, 447 F.3d 1090, 1093 n.4 (8th Cir. 2006). A district
court need not apply the beyond a reasonable doubt standard to determine whether a
prior conviction qualifies as a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. See
United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 244 (2005) (“Any fact (other than a prior
conviction) which is necessary to support a sentence exceeding the maximum
authorized by the facts established by a plea of guilty or a jury verdict must be
admitted by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.”) (emphasis
added). Parks’s escape conviction qualifies as a crime of violence. See United States
v. Nation, 243 F.3d 467, 472 (8th Cir. 2001) (holding “escape is categorically a crime
of violence”).
We affirm. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.
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