United States Court of Appeals

for the Fifth Circuit

No. 20-10408

United States of America, 

Plaintiff—Appellee,

versus

Terrol Debaun Travis, 

Defendant—Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Texas

USDC No. 4:19-cr-270-1

ON REMAND FROM THE SUPREME COURT

Before Higginbotham, Jones, and Costa, Circuit Judges.

Per Curiam:*

Terrol Travis was sentenced under the Armed Career Criminal Act. 

That law applies to felons unlawfully possessing firearms who have three 

convictions that count as a “violent felony” or “serious drug offense.” 18 

* Pursuant to 5th Circuit Rule 47.5, the court has determined that this 

opinion should not be published and is not precedent except under the limited 

circumstances set forth in 5th Circuit Rule 47.5.4.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

December 29, 2021

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

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No. 20-10408

2

U.S.C. § 924(e). We summarily affirmed the judgment, treating as qualifying 

offenses Travis’s two Texas convictions for possession with intent to deliver 

cocaine and a Texas conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. 

830 F. App’x 444 (5th Cir. 2020). Travis argued that the aggravated assault 

conviction was not a “violent felony” because that offense can be committed 

with a mens rea of recklessness and does not require the use, attempted use, 

or threatened us of force. Travis recognized, however, that our precedent 

foreclosed this argument, See United States v. Torres, 923 F.3d 425–26 (5th 

Cir. 2019), as well as his claim that the drug convictions were not “serious 

drug offenses.” 

Seeking to overrule that precedent, Travis filed a petition for 

certiorari raising two questions. Sup. Ct. No. 20-7974. The first related 

to the classification of his drug convictions. The second asked whether his 

aggravated assault conviction qualified as a “violent felony” even though it 

required only a reckless mental state. Id. While Travis’s petition was 

pending, the Supreme Court answered the second question in Borden v. 

United States, 141 S. Ct. 1817 (2021). Borden held that “[o]ffenses with a mens 

rea of recklessness do not qualify as violent felonies under” the Armed 

Career Criminal Act. Id. at 1834. Citing Borden, the Supreme Court later

granted Travis’s petition and remanded the case to our court for 

reconsideration. See 142 S. Ct. 58 (Oct. 4, 2021). 

It turns out, however, that application of the Armed Career Criminal 

Act does not depend on Travis’s aggravated assault conviction. Recall he has 

the two drug offenses. While Travis continues to argue that our precedent is 

incorrect in classifying those as “serious drug offenses,” he recognizes that 

Borden does not undermine our precedent on this issue. See United States v. 

Vickers, 540 F.3d 356, 366 (5th Cir. 2008) (holding that the Texas offense of 

delivering a controlled substance by offering for sale qualifies as a “serious 

drug offense”). He thus has two convictions for “serious drug offenses.”

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Travis’s third qualifying conviction is one we did not mention in our 

earlier ruling but that the district court relied on at sentencing: a 2002 Texas 

arson conviction. Arson is an enumerated “violent felony” under the Armed 

Career Criminal Act. See 28 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii); see also United States 

v. Velez-Alderete, 569 F.3d 541, 546 (5th Cir. 2009) (recognizing for purposes 

of a Sentencing Guidelines provision that the “Texas arson statute falls 

under the generic, contemporary meaning of arson”). As Travis again 

concedes, Borden does not affect the classification of the arson conviction.

Consequently, even disregarding the aggravated assault conviction, 

Travis has three convictions that qualify as Armed Career Criminal Act 

predicates. Therefore, the judgment is AFFIRMED. 

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