US v. Darnell Hayes, No. 13-4591 (4th Cir. 2014)
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UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 13-4591 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. DARNELL TYRECE HAYES, a/k/a Donnell Hayes, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh. James C. Dever, III, Chief District Judge. (5:13-cr-00018-D-1) Submitted: May 29, 2014 Decided: June 2, 2014 Before SHEDD, WYNN, and THACKER, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Lewis A. Thompson, III, BANZET, THOMPSON & STYERS, PLLC, Warrenton, North Carolina, for Appellant. Thomas G. Walker, United States Attorney, Jennifer P. May-Parker, Joshua L. Rogers, Assistant United States Attorneys, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Darnell Tyrece Hayes pled guilty to distribution of heroin and was sentenced as a career offender to 210-months imprisonment. He appeals, challenging the determination that he qualified a as career offender, Manual ( USSG ) § 4B1.1 (2012). To be classified U.S. Sentencing Guidelines We affirm. as a career offender under USSG § 4B1.1, a defendant must have been at least eighteen years old at the time he committed the offense of conviction, the offense of conviction must be a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense, and the defendant must have two prior felony convictions of either substance offense. a crime of violence USSG § 4B1.1(a). had one qualifying predicate offense. or a controlled Hayes concedes that he At issue in this appeal is whether Hayes prior convictions for either burning personal property, in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-66, or speeding to elude arrest, in violation of N.C. Gen. Stat § 20-141-5, qualify as a second predicate offense. Hayes argues that his North Carolina conviction for burning personal violence because physical force. property the does statute not However, does the qualify not as require Sentencing a crime the Guidelines use of of define crime of violence to include the crime of arson, and this court has previously held that the modern, generic crime of 2 arson involves United States (citing the v. cases). burning Knight, of 606 Because real F.3d the or personal 171, burning 174 of property. (4th Cir. personal 2010) property qualifies as arson, this offense is categorically a crime of violence. violence Having Thus, Hayes had two prior convictions for crimes of and was properly determined conviction, we need that sentenced Hayes not as has address a two Hayes career prior offender. qualifying challenges to the district court s determination that his speeding to elude arrest constituted a crime of violence and to the district court s alternate ruling that it would have imposed 210 months as a variant sentence if Hayes were not a career offender. Hayes unreasonable. also contends that the sentence imposed was We have reviewed the sentence and conclude that it was properly calculated and that the sentence imposed was reasonable. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007); United States v. Llamas, 599 F.3d 381, 387 (4th Cir. 2010). The district court appropriately considered the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (2012) factors in light of Hayes s individual characteristics and history, and adequately explained the sentence. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing the 210-month sentence. See Gall, 552 U.S. at 41; United States v. Allen, 491 F.3d 178, 193 (4th Cir. 2007) (applying 3 appellate presumption of reasonableness to within-Guidelines sentence). Accordingly, we affirm Hayes sentence. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED 4
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