United States v. Andrew Williams

605 F. App'x 833
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 27, 2015
Docket14-11556
StatusUnpublished

This text of 605 F. App'x 833 (United States v. Andrew Williams) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Andrew Williams, 605 F. App'x 833 (11th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Andrew Williams appeals his sentence of 180 months of imprisonment for possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. On appeal, Williams contends that the court unlawfully enhanced his sentence by ruling that his prior state drug convictions under Fla. Stat. § 893.13(1) were “serious drug offense[s],” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A), and “controlled substance offense[s],” United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“U.S.S.G.”) § 4B1.2(b). Because this Court recently held in United States v. Smith, 775 F.3d 1262, 1268 (11th Cir.2014), that “Section 893.13(1) of the Florida Statutes is both a ‘serious drug offense,’ 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A), and a ‘controlled substance offense,’ U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b),” we affirm.

I.

A federal grand jury indicted Williams on one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e)(1). Williams pled guilty without the benefit of a written plea agreement.

The presentence investigation report (“PSR”) describes three prior Florida state-court convictions for “possession with intent to sell, manufacture or deliver cocaine” and one Florida state-court conviction for resisting an officer with violence. *835 Based on these prior convictions, the probation officer initially assigned Williams a base offense level of 24, pursuant to U.S.S.G. §§ 2K2.1(a)(2) and 4B1.2(b), because Williams committed the instant offense after sustaining at least two felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. But since Williams also qualified as an “armed career criminal” under the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), based on these same convictions, the PSR instead applied a base offense level of 33 under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4(b)(3)(B).

Williams’s resulting advisory guideline range was 188 to 235 months of imprisonment, and as an “armed career criminal” he was subject to a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years of imprisonment. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Williams objected to the enhancements based on his prior convictions, contending that the Florida drug convictions under Fla. Stat. § 893.13(1) were not qualifying predicate offenses under either the ACCA or the Sentencing Guidelines because the offenses did not require proof of a mens rea as to the illicit nature of the controlled substance.

At sentencing, the district court overruled Williams’s objections and imposed a sentence of 180 months of imprisonment, noting that the length of the sentence was “outrageous” but was what the law required. The court stated that it would have imposed a 71-month sentence in the absence of the statutory minimum. This appeal followed.

II.

“We review de novo whether a prior conviction is a serious drug offense within the meaning of the ACCA.” United States v. Robinson, 583 F.3d 1292, 1294 (11th Cir.2009). Likewise, we review de novo whether a prior conviction is a “controlled substance offense” under § 4B1.2(b). United States v. Frazier, 89 F.3d 1501, 1505 (11th Cir.1996).

III.

Under the ACCA, an individual convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is subject to a mandatory minimum 15-year sentence if he has three previous federal or state convictions “for a violent felony or a serious drug offense.” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). The ACCA defines “serious drug offense,” in pertinent part, as “an offense under State law, involving manufacturing, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture or distribute, a controlled substance ..., for which a maximum term of imprisonment of ten years or more is prescribed by law.” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii).

Under § 2K2.1(a)(2) of the Sentencing Guidelines, a higher base offense level applies “if the defendant committed any part of the instant offense subsequent to sustaining at least two felony convictions- of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” The Guidelines define “controlled substance offense,” in turn, as “an offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance ... or the possession of a controlled substance ... with intent to manufacture, import, export, distribute, or dispense.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(b).

Florida law provides that it is a crime to “sell, manufacture, or deliver, or possess with intent to sell, manufacture, or deliver, a controlled substance.” Fla. Stat. § 893.13(l)(a). Where the offense involves cocaine, it is a second-degree felony carrying a 15-year maximum term of imprisonment. Id. §§ 893.13(l)(a)(l), *836 893.03(2)(a)(4), 775.082(3)(d). In 2002, the Florida legislature amended § 893.18(l)(a) by eliminating knowledge of the illicit nature of a substance as an element of controlled substance offenses. Id. § 893.101(1)-(2); see State v. Adkins, 96 So.3d 412, 415-16, 423 (Fla.2012) (upholding the constitutionality of the law). Lack of knowledge is now an affirmative defense. Fla. Stat. § 893.101(2).

Williams argues that his prior cocaine convictions under Fla. Stat. § 893.13(1) were not “serious drug offense[s]” or “controlled substance offense[s]” because § 893.13 does not require proof of the defendant’s knowledge of the illicit nature of the substance. Relying primarily on our opinions in Donawa v. U.S. Attorney General, 735 F.3d 1275 (11th Cir.2013), and Young v. United States,

Related

United States v. Robinson
583 F.3d 1292 (Eleventh Circuit, 2009)
United States v. Santos
553 U.S. 507 (Supreme Court, 2008)
Robert Young v. United States
936 F.2d 533 (Eleventh Circuit, 1991)
Moncrieffe v. Holder
133 S. Ct. 1678 (Supreme Court, 2013)
Dwight Dion Donawa v. U.S. Attorney General
735 F.3d 1275 (Eleventh Circuit, 2013)
United States v. Travis Lamont Smith
775 F.3d 1262 (Eleventh Circuit, 2014)
State v. Adkins
96 So. 3d 412 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2012)
United States v. Frazier
89 F.3d 1501 (Eleventh Circuit, 1996)

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605 F. App'x 833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-andrew-williams-ca11-2015.