United States Fourth Circuit

Defendant's conviction and sentence for unlawfully possessing ammunition as a felon, which included a determination that defendant was an armed career criminal under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), triggering a fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence, are: 1) affirmed in part, where sufficient evidence supported the jury's verdict and the district court did not err in its jury instructions; but 2) vacated and remanded in part for resentencing, where the district court erred in its application of the modified categorical approach to determine that his prior conviction under Maryland’s second-degree assault statute constituted a predicate conviction under the ACCA, and in its imposition of the ACCA sentencing enhancement.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/01/2013
• Published 10/01/2013

Judges

• DIAZ

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel