United States v. Eric Coleman, No. 22-1528 (8th Cir. 2023)
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Defendant entered a guilty plea to two counts of distributing a controlled substance. The district court concluded that defendant qualified as a career offender under U.S.S.G Sec. 4B1.1. Defendant appealed on this issue.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed. A defendant qualifies for the enhancement if his present offense and at least two past offenses are
felony convictions for a “crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” Here, the PSR identified three predicate offenses qualifying defendant for the enhancement: a 1994 attempted murder, a 1994 aggravated vehicular hijacking, and a 2018 possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver.
Defendant claimed that his attempted murder and vehicular hijacking offenses do not qualify as predicate offenses because 1.) neither resulted in him serving prison time within the past 15 years and 2.) neither is a crime of violence. The court rejected both arguments, affirming defendant's sentence.
Court Description: [Gruender, Author, with Benton and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing Guidelines. The district court did not err in determining that defendant qualified under Guidelines Sec. 4B1.1 for career-offender sentencing; defendant's Illinois convictions for attempted murder and vehicular carjacking fell within the fifteen-year limitations period as he was serving a revocation prison sentence for the crimes within fifteen years of the instant offense; the crimes were crimes of violence as the attempted murder offense has the same elements as the generic federal offense and thus qualified as a predicate offense under Sec. 4B1.2(a)(1); defendant does not challenge that his drug conviction is a qualifying offense and, given that two predicates were established, the court need not deal with his challenge to use of his vehicular carjacking offense as a predicate.
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