United States v. Kroll

Droney, Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Jay Kroll appeals his sentence of life imprisonment based on his guilty plea to two counts of sexual exploitation of a child in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and § 2251(e). At sentencing, the district court concluded that a life sentence was mandatory based on its determination that Kroll's prior conviction from 1993 for sodomy in the second degree under New York law was a "prior sex conviction" under 18 U.S.C. § 3559(e). Kroll contends that the district court plainly erred in that determination by failing to apply the "categorical approach," which…