In United States v. Murillo-Alvarado, --- F.3d ---, No. 14-50354 (9th Cir. 2017), the Court held that Cal H&S 11351 is divisible as to its controlled substance requirement.
This was the expected result, because the Court had already reached the same conclusion as to section 11352 in United States v. Martinez-Lopez, 864 F.3d 1034 (9th Cir. 2017) (en banc).
The Court also concluded the government met its burden under the modified approach. The key here is that the conviction documents included a certified copy of the guilty plea form which contained a handwritten factual basis in which Murillo-Alvarado admitted that, on May 29, 2001, he “possessed cocaine to be used for purposes of sale.”
This admission to substance, along with the other conviction documents, satisfied the Court that the defendant's plea constituted a conviction for a federal predicate.
