Opinion ID: 3030375
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fenton

Text: The predicate offense in Fenton was burglary. 309 F.3d at 826-27. The defendant had broken into a sporting goods store and stolen several firearms, and he was later convicted of unlawful possession of those firearms. Id. In calculating the recommended sentencing range, the district court found that the burglary constituted “another felony offense” and that the firearms had been possessed “in connection with” that offense. Id. It therefore applied, over an objection by defense counsel, the enhancement under section 2K2.1(b)(5). Id. We reversed the district court’s judgment of sentence. We held that the phrase “another felony offense,” as used in section 2K2.1, requires a “distinction in time or conduct” between the predicate offense and the firearms possession crime. Id. at 827-28. Specifically, possession of the firearm cannot constitute an integral aspect of the predicate offense; if it does, then the two offenses must be considered one and the same, and the predicate offense cannot be deemed “another felony offense” 11 for purposes of section 2K2.1(b)(5). Id. Possession of the firearm was an integral aspect of the predicate offense because Fenton possessed the guns because he had stolen them. Id. at 826-27. We summarized the holding in a single sentence: “[A] state law crime, identical and coterminous with the federal crime, cannot be considered as ‘another felony offense’ within the meaning of the Sentencing Guidelines.” Id. at 826. Of particular concern to this Court was the possibility of double-counting. The theft of the firearms in Fenton had already been used to establish the base sentencing range for the substantive offense (unlawful possession of a firearm) and to support an enhancement for possession of a “stolen” firearm. Id. at 827-28. To use the same conduct to support yet another enhancement, for possession of the firearm in connection with “another felony offense,” seemed fundamentally unfair. See also id. at 828 (“[W]e are troubled by the fact that almost every federal weapons offense could be prosecuted simultaneously under state law.”). We noted that this interpretation accorded with the plain language of the provision, the presumption of lenity in the interpretation of criminal statutes, and the decisions of the Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits. Id. at 827-28; see United States v. Sanders, 162 F.3d 396, 399-400 (6th Cir. 1998) (concluding that enhancement for stealing firearms during burglary of pawn shop was improper because there was no separation of time or conduct); United States v. Szakacs, 212 F.3d 344, 351 (7th Cir. 2000) (holding that conspiracy to steal firearms was not sufficiently distinct from firearms possession to be considered “another felony offense” for purposes of section 2K2.1(b)(5)). We rejected contrary 12 decisions from the Courts of Appeals for the Fifth and Eighth Circuits. Fenton, 309 at 827-28; see United States v. Luna, 165 F.3d 316, 323-24 (5th Cir. 1999) (holding that enhancement could apply when firearm was obtained as a result of burglary); United States v. Kenney, 283 F.3d 934, 938-39 (8th Cir. 2002) (concluding that enhancement could apply when firearm was obtained as result of theft). Additionally, the majority in Fenton rejected the dissent’s argument that the majority’s concerns over double-counting were unfounded because possession of a firearm – even if it forms an integral aspect of the predicate offense – always has the independent potential to facilitate the predicate offense, warranting an additional enhancement in the sentence, see Fenton, 309 F.3d at 282-30 (Roth, J., dissenting). See id. at 827-28.