United States v. Deshawn LaPreace Landers

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• Decided: June 6, 2025
• Docket: 24-1630
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 25a0280n.06

No. 24-1630

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT Jun 06, 2025 KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk ) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT v. ) COURT FOR THE EASTERN ) DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN ) DESHAWN LAPREACE LANDERS, ) OPINION Defendant-Appellant. )

Before: MOORE, GRIFFIN, and KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judges.

KETHLEDGE, Circuit Judge. Deshawn Landers pled guilty to possessing a firearm as a

felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He now appeals his sentence, arguing that the district

court erred when it applied a four-level enhancement under the sentencing guidelines for

possessing a firearm in connection with another felony offense. We affirm.

In August 2022, Landers’s wife, Dishanique, went to a Boost Mobile store to have her

phone screen repaired. One of the store employees was unable to help Dishanique unlock her

phone, so she grew angry and called Landers. Landers entered the store and threatened to

physically harm the employees. He then left the store through the glass front doors, walked to his

car in the parking lot, and pulled out a pistol from the driver side. Standing next to the car, Landers

fired a single shot in the air. He then walked around the car to face the entrance of the store and

fired two more rounds in the air. Soon after, Landers got back into the car and drove away. No. 24-1630, United States v. Landers

Surveillance video from the Boost Mobile store captured the incident. Detroit police

officers recovered shell casings from the parking lot and scanned them into the National Integrated

Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) system, which compares images of ballistic evidence to

identify firearms used in multiple shootings. NIBIN linked the shell casings found at Boost Mobile

to those found at three other shootings in the Detroit area over the next eight months.

In April 2023, officers searched Landers’s home and found three loaded handguns and one

unloaded Sig Sauer pistol. Landers admitted that he had discharged the Sig Sauer at Boost Mobile

and two other shootings. Landers also admitted that he knew he was not allowed to possess a

firearm because of his prior felony convictions.

A federal grand jury later indicted Landers for being a felon in possession of a firearm, and

Landers pled guilty. A probation officer recommended a four-level increase under U.S.S.G.

§ 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) for possessing a firearm “in connection with another felony offense”—that is,

the several shootings above, including the one at Boost Mobile. Landers objected to that

enhancement, arguing that his conduct at Boost Mobile did not amount to a felony in Michigan.

At sentencing, the district court overruled Landers’s objection, finding that the Boost

Mobile shooting satisfied the elements of felony assault under Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.82(1).

The court calculated Landers’s resulting guidelines range as 84 to 105 months in prison, and then

imposed a sentence of 65 months in prison. This appeal followed.

We review the district court’s factual findings for clear error and give “due deference” to

its “fact-bound” determination that the defendant possessed the firearm “in connection with”

another felony. United States v. Taylor, 648 F.3d 417, 431-32 (6th Cir. 2011); see also United

States v. Harris, No. 22-5951, 2023 WL 7219085, at *2 (6th Cir. Nov. 2, 2023) (addressing

standard of review).

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Landers argues that the district court erred when it applied U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)

because, he says, his conduct at Boost Mobile amounted to, at most, reckless discharge of a

firearm—a misdemeanor in Michigan. See Mich. Comp. Laws § 752.863a. Specifically, Landers

says the shooting at Boost Mobile did not amount to felony assault under Michigan law because

he merely shot the gun in the air but did not point it at anyone. See Mich. Comp. Laws § 750.82(1).

To be convicted of felony assault in Michigan, a defendant must have wielded a dangerous

weapon “with the intent to injure or place the victim in reasonable apprehension of an immediate

battery.” People v. Jackson, 790 N.W.2d 340, 343 n.2 (Mich. 2010) (citation omitted). The

government does not have to show that the defendant pointed the gun at a victim—under Michigan

law, just waving a gun in the air after threatening someone may be enough to convict. See People

v. Adams, 2018 WL 1936185, at *3 (Mich. Ct. App. Apr. 24, 2018).

Here, Landers threatened to physically harm the Boost Mobile employees, then stood in

the parking lot facing the glass doors of the store—in full view of those employees—and fired his

gun into the air multiple times. From those facts, the district court reasonably inferred, by a

preponderance of the evidence, that Landers intended to place those employees in fear that he

would shoot them. That intent, with this conduct, is enough to satisfy the elements of felony

assault in Michigan. See People v. Reeves, 580 N.W.2d 433, 436 (Mich. 1998). The district court

properly applied the enhancement.

The district court’s judgment is affirmed.

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