In United States v. Aguirre-Miron, the Third Circuit found plain error when the District Court failed to group certain closely related counts, as required by the Sentencing Guidelines. The presentence report did not group the defendant’s convictions for production of child pornography with convictions for receipt and possession. At sentencing, the District Court adopted the PSR, and the defendant did not object. But the sentencing guidelines require a court to group “[a]ll counts involving substantially the same harm.” Since the defendant was subject to a pattern-enhancement unique to child pornography charges, all of the counts leading to that pattern must be grouped. The District Court failed to do so, though it applied the pattern-enhancement.
