Sentencing guidelines; PRV 1; PRV 2; MCL 777.51; MCL 777.52; Federal counterfeiting conviction; 18 USC § 471; MCL 750.251; Corresponding offense; People v Crews; Waiver; People v Hershey; Cobbs agreement; People v Smith

The court held that defendant’s sentence had to be vacated because his federal counterfeiting conviction was improperly scored as a high-severity felony under PRV 1. Defendant pled no contest to unarmed robbery and related offenses under a Cobbs agreement for a minimum sentence within the lower third of the guidelines range. The trial court scored PRV 1 at 25 points based on his federal conviction under 18 USC § 471. The court held that this was error because the federal offense corresponded to MCL 750.251, a Class E felony. Comparing the statutes, the court reasoned that both “seek to prevent and punish essentially the same conduct and harm” involving counterfeit money or obligations, making the federal conviction a “low-severity felony, not a high-severity felony.” It also held defendant did not waive the issue even though counsel conceded below that 25 points were proper because, under Hershey, advocating a contradictory scoring position at sentencing “does not constitute a waiver” in this context. Finally, the court held that resentencing was required despite defendant’s 45-month minimum still falling within the corrected range because the sentence exceeded the lower-third Cobbs agreement when measured against the properly scored range. Relying on Smith, it reasoned that the plea agreement implicitly required sentencing under “an accurate guidelines range,” and the scoring error affected the fairness of the proceedings. Vacated and remanded for resentencing, with plea withdrawal available if the trial court cannot follow the Cobbs agreement.