United States v. Hammond, No. 19-2357 (7th Cir. 2021)
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Over the course of a three-week crime spree in October 2017, Hammond robbed or attempted to rob, seven stores at gunpoint in Indiana and Michigan. Five of the seven incidents took place in northern Indiana, where Hammond was charged with five counts of Hobbs Act robbery and several attendant weapons charges, including one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. 922(g), and two counts of brandishing a weapon during a crime of violence, 18 U.S.C. 924(c). Convicted, he was sentenced to 47 years in prison.
The Seventh Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that the district court should have suppressed certain cell site location information (CSLI) that law enforcement collected to locate him during his robbery spree and to confirm his location on the days of the robberies, that the district court erred in instructing the jury regarding the felon-in-possession charge under the Supreme Court’s “Rehaif” decision, and that Hobbs Act robbery is not a crime of violence under 18 U.S.C. 924(c) or under the Sentencing Guidelines, so his section 924(c) conviction must be overturned, and his sentence vacated. The collection of Hammond’s real-time CSLI was not a search; the resulting traffic stop was valid.
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