Opinion ID: 626071
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Constantine's Sentence

Text: Constantine was sentenced under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1), which imposes a fifteen-year minimum sentence for any person convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm who has at least three previous convictions for a violent felony. The statute defines violent felony in relevant part as any crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year ... that ... is burglary. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). Constantine claims that his previous convictions were not for violent felon[ies] because burglary should not include burglary of a commercial building, but should be limited only to burglary of a residential building. Constantine has been convicted four times of third-degree burglary in Minnesota, each time for burglary of commercial, not residential, buildings. We have repeatedly held that the term burglary in § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii) includes commercial as well as residential burglaries. See United States v. Blahowski, 324 F.3d 592, 594-95 (8th Cir.2003); United States v. Hascall, 76 F.3d 902, 906 (8th Cir.1996). We have also already decided, as recently as 2009, that Minnesota's third-degree burglary statute, under which Constantine was repeated convicted, qualifies as a violent felony under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(ii). United States v. Sonczalla, 561 F.3d 842, 846 (8th Cir.2009) (citing Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575, 598, 110 S.Ct. 2143, 109 L.Ed.2d 607 (1990)). On the basis of these decisions, the district court correctly found that Constantine was subject to a fifteen-year minimum sentence under § 924. Accordingly, we affirm the district court.