United States v. Lomax, No. 14-2811 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendants Anthony Lomax, Brandon Lomax, and Demond Glover were convicted of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute 1,000 grams or more of heroin. Defendants raised various issues on appeal. The court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to convict defendants and rejected their claim that they were running three separate heroin businesses. Anthony argued that he was not part of the conspiracy, but instead had a buyer-seller relationship with Brandon. The court agreed with Anthony that the district court erred by refusing to instruct the jury about the buyer-seller relationship. Therefore, the court remanded Anthony's case for a new trial with the instruction. The court rejected Brandon's argument that he was entitled to a jury determination on whether he had two prior drug convictions, holding that, pursuant to Almendarez-Torres v. United States, a sentencing enhancement based on a prior conviction is not subject to the Sixth Amendment requirement for a jury determination. The court also rejected Brandon's argument that the district court’s finding that he had two prior drug convictions, which enhanced his mandatory minimum sentence to life imprisonment, violated the Constitution. Therefore, the court affirmed Brandon's sentence. Finally, the court rejected Demond's argument for resentencing because he was erroneously classified as a career offender in light of Johnson v. United States because the error was harmless. Accordingly, the court affirmed Demond's sentence.
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