United States v. Mancillas

After a neighbor saw him brandishing a gun during an argument with his girlfriend and heard gunshots, Mancillas was convicted of two counts of possessing ammunition as a felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). He was sentenced to a term of 100 months. The Seventh Circuit agreed that the Indiana offense of strangulation is a “crime of violence” for Sentencing Guidelines purposes, so the district court did not err in calculating Mancillas’ base offense level. Applying the categorical approach, the court stated that the Indiana strangulation statute explicitly contemplates a degree of violent force in the final element of the offense. The court remanded for resentencing because the court summarily denied Mancillas’ clear and unequivocal request to represent himself at sentencing and failed to conduct a “Faretta” colloquy. Even at sentencing, where the complexities of trial and the difficult strategic choices are over, a court must respect the wishes of a defendant who unequivocally wishes to exercise his or her right to proceed pro se. This means undertaking a meaningful inquiry into a request for self-representation. View "United States v. Mancillas" on Justia Law