Opinion ID: 2995577
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: If death resulted

Text: To determine if death resulted, the sentencing court must ascertain whether the defendant’s conduct was intentional or reckless and whether death was a foreseeable risk of that conduct. Id. Generally, this means that the defendant’s possession of a weapon during the commission of another offense put into motion a chain of events that ended in a tragedy. Id. at 242. For example, in Walls, the evidence introduced at sentencing demonstrated that the defendant gathered a group of armed men, proceeded to a rival’s house where a gunfight ensued, and fired a shot into a crowd in which an innocent bystander was killed. Id. at 240. The district court cross-referenced Walls’s conviction for possession of a firearm while a felon with the homicide guidelines, reasoning that Walls put in motion this series of events that resulted in the taking of a human life. Id. We affirmed concluding that irrespective of whether Walls fired the fatal shot, his conduct resulted in the bystander’s death. Id. at 242. Accord United States v. Smith, 5 F.3d 259 (7th Cir. 1993) (approved application of homicide cross reference to a defendant who fired recklessly into a group of New Year’s Eve partygoers killing one of them); United States v. White, 979 F.2d 539 (7th Cir. 1992) (affirming application of the general death results guideline, U.S.S.G. sec. 5K2.1, to a defendant who transported a minor across state lines for the purpose of prostitution who was killed, presumably by a customer). The problem here is that the district court did not make any findings that Thomas’s conduct put into motion a series of events that led to Leal’s death. All the court found was that Thomas was involved in Leal’s murder and the theft of Mr. Leal’s gun. We are unable to determine if the theft and possession resulted in Leal’s death or if Leal’s death precipitated the theft and possession. And, the evidence that Thomas was found in possession of Leal’s pistol the day after the murder, and Detective Titus’s testimony that the blood on Thomas’s t-shirt was due to Thomas getting into the car after Leal had been shot, could support the conclusion that Thomas’s involvement occurred after Leal’s death. Most significantly, because Leal was not shot with his own gun, we do not know if Thomas even possessed a firearm before or at the time of the murder. This is important because, unlike the defendant in Smith, the pistol that Thomas was found in possession of was not the weapon used to kill Leal. See Smith, 5 F.3d at 260 (defendant used firearm to shoot and kill partygoer). As far as we can tell, the pistol that Thomas possessed was also not used to shoot at Leal. Cf. Walls, 80 F.3d at 240 (defendant fired shot blindly toward enemy’s house and an innocent bystander was killed). Because there are insufficient findings as to the sequence of events and whether Thomas possessed any firearm before or at the time of Leal’s death, the district court’s application of the cross reference was in error. This error, which was plain, affected Thomas’s substantial rights and the outcome and integrity of the district court proceedings because without it, Thomas could have received a sentence less than life imprisonment. And, without sufficient findings, we cannot be confident that a miscarriage of justice did not occur. Because the district court did not make sufficient findings to conclude that Leal’s death resulted from Thomas’s possession of a firearm during the commission of another offense, Thomas’s life sentence for the unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon is vacated.