United States v. Perez, No. 17-14136 (11th Cir. 2019)
Annotate this CaseThe Eleventh Circuit held that the district court reversibly erred in concluding that defendant's conduct and choice of language would have instilled in a reasonable person a fear of death, justifying application of the Guidelines' threat-of-death enhancement under USSG 2B3.1 to his robbery conviction. In this case, the court held that defendant's conduct and language did not rise to the level of a threat of death where he did not carry a weapon and his conduct mitigated a reasonable victim's fear of harm. In the first robbery, defendant bargained pleasantly with one teller. In the second robbery, he allowed the teller to leave their post and report the robbery while it was ongoing. In both robberies, defendant handed the teller a bank not with instructions, using words like "please" and "thank you." Accordingly, the court vacated the sentence and remanded for resentencing.
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