United States v. Chavar Alec Harrison

56 F. 4th 1325
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 10, 2023
Docket21-14514
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 56 F. 4th 1325 (United States v. Chavar Alec Harrison) 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. Chavar Alec Harrison, 56 F. 4th 1325 (11th Cir. 2023).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 21-14514 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 01/10/2023 Page: 1 of 18

[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 21-14514 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus CHAVAR ALEC HARRISON,

Defendant-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:20-cr-00086-JRH-BKE-1 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 21-14514 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 01/10/2023 Page: 2 of 18

2 Opinion of the Court 21-14514

Before WILSON, JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges, and RUIZ, * District Judge. RUIZ, District Judge: This case is about whether Georgia’s robbery statute, O.C.G.A. § 16-8-40, is divisible under Mathis v. United States, 579 U.S. 500 (2016), and if so, whether robbery by intimidation under Georgia law is a crime of violence within the meaning of Section 4B1.2 of the United States Sentencing Guidelines. We conclude the answer to both questions is yes. Therefore, the district court erred when it held otherwise, and we vacate Chavar Harrison’s sentence and remand for resentencing. I. In 1997, Chavar Harrison was charged with armed robbery under Georgia law. He ultimately pled guilty to the lesser included offense of robbery by intimidation. On April 17, 2020, officers from the Richmond County Sherriff’s Office stopped Harrison for a traf- fic violation. During the stop, the officers conducted a probable cause search of Harrison’s vehicle after they smelled marijuana em- anating from it. Though the officers did not find marijuana, they located a loaded handgun, and Harrison proceeded to speak with the officers about his possession of the firearm.

* Honorable Rodolfo A. Ruiz II, United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 21-14514 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 01/10/2023 Page: 3 of 18

21-14514 Opinion of the Court 3

A grand jury later indicted Harrison for one count of posses- sion of a firearm by a prohibited person in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), to which Harrison pled guilty. The provision of the United States Sentencing Guidelines applicable to that offense pro- vides for a base offense level of twenty when, relevant to this ap- peal, “the defendant committed any part of the instant offense sub- sequent to sustaining one felony conviction of either a crime of vi- olence or a controlled substance offense.” U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). The probation officer who prepared the presen- tence investigation report (“PSR”) classified Harrison’s prior con- viction for robbery by intimidation under Georgia law as a convic- tion of a crime of violence. Accordingly, Harrison’s PSR assigned him a base offense level of twenty and a total offense level of sev- enteen under the Guidelines after applying reductions for ac- ceptance of responsibility. With a total offense level of seventeen and a criminal history category of IV, the Guidelines provided an advisory sentencing range of thirty-seven to forty-six months’ im- prisonment. Harrison objected to the PSR’s classification of his prior con- viction. He argued that robbery by sudden snatching, found within Georgia’s robbery statute, is not a crime of violence and Georgia’s robbery statute is indivisible under Mathis. Consequently, this would preclude robbery by intimidation from qualifying as a crime of violence. At the sentencing hearing, the district court held the statute is indivisible. Accordingly, the district court reduced Harri- son’s base offense level to fourteen and his total offense level to USCA11 Case: 21-14514 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 01/10/2023 Page: 4 of 18

4 Opinion of the Court 21-14514

twelve. Because of that adjustment, Harrison’s advisory sentenc- ing range under the Guidelines was recalculated to twenty-one to twenty-seven months’ imprisonment, and the district court sen- tenced Harrison to twenty-one months’ imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. The Government timely ap- pealed the district court’s determination that Georgia’s robbery statute is indivisible. II. Georgia’s robbery statute provides that: (a) A person commits the offense of robbery when, with intent to commit theft, he takes property of an- other from the person or the immediate presence of another:

(1) By use of force;

(2) By intimidation, by the use of threat or co- ercion, or by placing such person in fear of immediate serious bodily injury to himself or to another; or

(3) By sudden snatching.

(b) A person convicted of the offense of robbery shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 20 years.

O.C.G.A. § 16-8-40(a)–(b). USCA11 Case: 21-14514 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 01/10/2023 Page: 5 of 18

21-14514 Opinion of the Court 5

We review de novo whether an offense is a “crime of vio- lence” within the meaning of the Guidelines. United States v. Har- ris, 586 F.3d 1283, 1284 (11th Cir. 2009). The provision of the Guidelines relevant to Harrison’s con- viction assigns an increased base offense level where the defendant commits any part of the offense after being convicted of a “crime of violence.” U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). Commentary to Section 2K2.1 directs that Section 4B1.2 defines what offenses constitute crimes of violence. Under Section 4B1.2, an offense is a crime of violence if it either (1) “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another”; or (2) is an enumerated offense listed in Section 4B1.2(a)(2). U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a). The former is commonly known as the “ele- ments clause” and the latter the “enumerated clause.” To determine if an offense qualifies under either clause, we must use a “categorical approach.” United States v. Eason, 953 F.3d 1184, 1189 (11th Cir. 2020). 1 Under the categorical approach, we do not look to the “specific conduct” underlying the defendant’s conviction. United States v. Davis, 875 F.3d 592, 597 (11th Cir. 2017) (quoting Mathis, 579 U.S. at 510). Instead, we must “presume

1 This categorial approach is also used to determine what offenses qualify as a “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act or an “aggravated fel- ony” under the Immigration and Nationality Act, and we therefore look to cases construing those statutes for instruction when determining what consti- tutes a crime of violence under the Guidelines. See, e.g., Eason, 953 F.3d at 1189 n.3; Cintron v. U.S. Att’y Gen., 882 F.3d 1380, 1384 n.3 (11th Cir. 2018). USCA11 Case: 21-14514 Document: 39-1 Date Filed: 01/10/2023 Page: 6 of 18

6 Opinion of the Court 21-14514

that the conviction ‘rested upon nothing more than the least of the acts’ criminalized” by the statute. Moncrieffe v. Holder, 569 U.S. 184, 190–91 (2013) (alterations accepted) (quoting Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133, 137 (2010)). So, we look to “the ele- ments of the statute of conviction” and determine if the least of the acts criminalized qualifies as a crime of violence. United States v. Oliver, 962 F.3d 1311, 1316 (11th Cir. 2020) (quoting Davis, 875 F.3d at 597). If it does not, a conviction under the statute cannot qualify as a crime of violence. Id.

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Bluebook (online)
56 F. 4th 1325, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-chavar-alec-harrison-ca11-2023.