United States v. Blair, No. 12-4427 (3d Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseBlair participated in the sale of guns. After his arrest, he pled guilty as a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). A presentence report recommended that Blair be sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e). Blair had pled guilty in Pennsylvania in 1987, to third-degree robbery in the form of “physically tak[ing] or remov[ing] property from the person of another by force however slight,” and to armed burglary. In 1991, he pled guilty to four counts of first-degree robbery. The 1991 charging documents state that, for each count, the “[f]elony committed or threatened” was “[a]ggravated [a]ssault.” The PSR recommended that each of the 1991 counts be treated as a separate criminal episode. Blair argued that his 1987 conviction was not for the generic offense of burglary required under ACCA; that “robbery by force however slight” is not a violent felony under ACCA; and that his 1991 convictions qualified as, at most, one violent felony because the charging documents did not conclusively establish that the crimes were “committed on occasions different from one another.” The district court determined that his 1987 convictions were for violent felonies and that the 1991 convictions “at a minimum” established three separate violent felonies and sentenced Blair to 180 months. The Third Circuit affirmed.
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