United States v. Brown

916 F.3d 706

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: February 22, 2019
• Docket: No. 18-1426; No. 18-1427
• Status: Published

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

*707Anthony Brown appeals his sentence of 120 months' imprisonment for bank robbery. He challenges the district court's¹ application of the crime of violence enhancement under the sentencing guidelines, contending that his Illinois attempted robbery conviction does not qualify as a career offender predicate under the guidelines's force clause. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1). "We review de novo the district court's determination that a conviction constitutes a crime of violence." United States v. Williams , 899 F.3d 659, 662 (8th Cir. 2018).

We recently held that Illinois robbery is a "violent felony" under the force clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act *708("ACCA"), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(b). Dembry v. United States , 914 F.3d 1185, 1187-88 (8th Cir. 2019). "The relevant definition of a violent felony under the ACCA and the definition of a crime of violence under the guidelines are so similar that we generally consider cases interpreting them interchangeably." United States v. Sykes , 914 F.3d 615, 620 (8th Cir. 2019) (internal quotation marks omitted). Applying this logic, we hold that Illinois robbery is a crime of violence under the guidelines. And because Illinois robbery is a crime of violence, so too is Illinois attempted robbery. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1) n.1 (noting that a "crime of violence" includes attempts to commit such an offense). This conclusion is consistent with Seventh Circuit decisions, which have "repeatedly held that Illinois robbery is a crime of violence under the 'force' clause of § 4B1.2(a)(1)." United States v. Davis , 712 F. App'x 578, 579 (7th Cir. 2018), cert. denied , --- U.S. ----, 138 S.Ct. 2695, 201 L.Ed.2d 1085 (2018).

For these reasons, we affirm Brown's sentence.

1 The Honorable John A. Jarvey, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.