EJJ Adjudication For Offense Involving Firearm Prevents Departure From Sixty Month Mandatory Minimum Sentence on Gun Possession by Ineligible.

State v. Jiles, Minn.Ct.App., 6/23/2009.  Mr. Jiles has an EJJ adjudication of second degree assault involving a firearm, and a adult felony motor vehicle theft conviction.  The EJJ adjudication and car theft make him ineligible to possess firearms.  He did so anyway and pleaded guilty to it.  The offense carries a mandatory minimum sentence of sixty months imprisonment.

The trial court found "substantial and compelling reasons" to sentence Mr. Jiles to a sentence of only thirty-four months.  The state appealed that departure.  The state argued that because Mr. Jiles' assault EJJ adjudication involved a firearm the court could not ignore the mandatory minimum sentence because of the terms of Minn.Stat. 609.11, subd. 8(b).  This statute says that the court may not:

sentence a defendant without regard to the mandatory minimum sentences established by this section if the defendant previously has been convicted of an [assault] in which the defendant used or possessed a firearm or other dangerous weapon.

Mr. Jiles suggested that the use of "convicted" did not include an EJJ adjudication and so subd. 8(b) didn't apply to him.  The appellate court disagreed, citing Minn.Stat. 260B.245, subd 1, which equates an EJJ adjudication to an adult felony criminal conviction for purposes of the sentencing guidelines.  The appellate court also thought that because Minn.Stat. 624.713 refers to an EJJ adjudication as a "conviction" that an EJJ adjudication is a conviction.