United States v. Spells

537 F.3d 743, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 16861, 2008 WL 3177284
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 8, 2008
Docket07-1185
StatusPublished
Cited by101 cases

This text of 537 F.3d 743 (United States v. Spells) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Spells, 537 F.3d 743, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 16861, 2008 WL 3177284 (7th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Melvin Spells was convicted by a jury on three counts stemming from a robbery of a Papa Johns Pizza restaurant. While Spells challenges the sufficiency of the evidence on appeal, the main thrust of this appeal involves Spells’s sentencing. The district court, in sentencing Spells, found that he was an armed career criminal under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1), based on what it deemed to be prior “violent felonies,” as well as a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. Spells was then sentenced to 346 months’ imprisonment — 262 months, concurrent, on Counts 1 and 3, with a consecutive sentence of 84 months on Count 2. In addition to challenging the sufficiency of the evidence, Spells appeals the court’s findings that he was an armed career criminal and a career offender, as well its imposition of a 262 month sentence on Count 1, when the statutory maximum sentence on that Count was 240 months. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court’s judgment on all grounds, except for the 262 month sentence on Count 1, and order a limited remand for the district court to correct this error.

I. Background

On May 9, 2006, a three count indictment was filed against Spells with respect to an alleged robbery of a Papa Johns Pizza on June 13, 2005. The indictment charged Spells with: (1) robbery affecting interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a); (2) brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(ii); and (3) being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e). A two day jury trial then commenced on September 25, 2006.

At trial, the jury heard testimony from Larry Jenkins, the employee working at *745 Papa Johns on the day of the robbery. Jenkins testified that at 5:00 PM, a customer came in, wearing a blue shirt and baseball cap, and started talking about sports with him for at least five minutes before ordering a Coke. Jenkins placed the customer’s money in the register and then, when he lifted his head, found that the customer was pointing a black handgun at his chest. The customer demanded the money from the register, but was not satisfied with what Jenkins proceeded to give him. The customer, after demanding more money, put his gun down and reached into the drawer himself. Then the customer ran out the door into a brown colored van, at which point Jenkins called the police. At trial, Jenkins identified the customer as Spells.

A second Papa Johns employee, Gregory Fleetwood, was also present during the robbery and testified at Spells’s trial. At the time of the robbery, Fleetwood was approximately fifteen feet from the counter, cutting pizzas. Fleetwood’s testimony largely corroborated Jenkins account of the events and description of the robber, although Fleetwood believed the gun was silver in color and recalled the entire time the robber was in the restaurant as lasting only about two minutes.

Deputy Paul Ziliak then testified that after hearing a dispatch about the robbery, he spotted a brown van in the parking lot of the strip mall where the robbery occurred and activated his lights and siren. The driver of the van, who Deputy Ziliak identified at trial as Spells, did not stop the van, but instead exited the vehicle shirtless while it was still moving, and was almost struck by the Deputy’s squad car as he ran away. John Mark Archer, a canine officer, testified to receiving a dispatch put out by Ziliak when Spells had fled the van, and apprehending Spells shortly thereafter. Ziliak then testified to what was found in the van — a shirt matching the description given by Jenkins and $107 in cash. Later that evening, when Detective Scott Scheid searched the van, he testified that he found a loaded 9 millimeter handgun underneath the floor mat between the two front seats and live rounds of ammunition in the vehicle.

On the second day of trial, the jury unanimously found Spells guilty on all three counts. The case then proceeded to sentencing on January 17, 2007. The Pre-sentence Investigation Report (“PSR”) and accompanying sentencing recommendation advised that Spells be sentenced to 362 months’ imprisonment. As is relevant to this appeal, the PSR placed Spells’s statutory minimum sentence under Count 3 (felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1)) at 15 years, see 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1), rather than a statutory maximum sentence of 10 years, see 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(2), on the basis of what it deemed to be three prior violent felony convictions under the Armed Career Criminals Act. According to the PSR, these prior convictions also translated to sentencing enhancements under the Guidelines. The PSR recommended that Spells’s offense level be increased from 24 to 32 because, by having at least two prior violent felony convictions, he was a “career offender” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. Additionally, the PSR’s determination that Spells was an “armed career criminal” resulted in Spells’s offense level being increased to 34, under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4. Spells’s designation as a career offender and armed career criminal also resulted in his criminal history category being placed at VI.

The three prior offenses deemed to be violent felonies in the PSR had been prosecuted in Indiana state court in 2001. The first conviction was for Resisting Law Enforcement, a Class D felony. The PSR *746 relied upon a probable cause affidavit in order to provide details of the crime — that Spells sped away from law enforcement after he was spotted driving without a safety belt and was apprehended after he left the vehicle on foot. Both of the other felonies were robbery convictions prosecuted jointly. One of the robberies occurred on March 26, 2001, and the other occurred on April 10, 2001.

At the sentencing hearing, Spells raised two objections to the PSR. He first objected to his designation as an “armed career criminal,” claiming there was no grand jury determination as to whether his prior convictions arose from separate occasions under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e), but this objection was overruled by the court. Spells’s second objection involved a point of clarification on the resisting law enforcement conviction, and was dropped by Defendant based on the probation officer’s response. Having quickly dismissed Spells’s objections, the district court then, with respect to the Guidelines, “adopt[ed] [the PSR’s] formulation as [his] own.” The court then went on to explain why Spells’s criminal history and total offense level under the Guidelines had been raised.

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Bluebook (online)
537 F.3d 743, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 16861, 2008 WL 3177284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-spells-ca7-2008.