United States v. Waters, No. 15-2728 (7th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseWaters cooked methamphetamine at locations throughout southern Illinois and also taught others to do so. He eventually pled guilty to conspiring to manufacture a controlled substance, 21 U.S.C. 846, 841(a)(1). Waters had several prior convictions, including for enhanced domestic battery under Illinois law, which the probation office characterized as a crime of violence (U.S.S.G. 4B1.1a) in the presentence investigation report. The court overruled Waters’s challenge to that characterization and sentenced him as a career offender. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. Precedent forecloses a defense argument that the Illinois statute prohibiting domestic battery does not include the use of physical force as an element of the offense and thus, is not a crime of violence. No intervening Supreme Court decision justifies a different result.
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