Opinion ID: 661736
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Career Offender Status for Sentencing

Text: 28 The district court concluded that Davis was a career offender, a finding that resulted in a total offense level of 32 and a criminal history category of VI, with a permissible sentencing range of 210-262 months. Davis was sentenced to 210 months. He challenges his career offender status, contending that his prior drug convictions are related to each other, and do not constitute two separate felonies. 29 Since Davis was sentenced in November 1992, the 1992 Sentencing Guidelines apply to this case. 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3553(a)(4). Pursuant to U.S.S.G. Sec. 4B1.1, a defendant is a career offender if (1) he was at least 18 years old at the time of the offense; (2) the instant offense of conviction is a felony and is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and (3) the defendant has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense. In order to be counted as separate prior felony convictions, the sentences for the convictions must be unrelated within the meaning of U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.2(a)(2). Application note 3 to this section states: 4 30 Related Cases. Prior sentences are not considered related if they were for offenses that were separated by an intervening arrest (i.e., the defendant is arrested for the first offense prior to committing the second offense). Otherwise, prior sentences are considered related if they resulted from offenses that (1) occurred on the same occasion, (2) were part of a single common scheme or plan, or (3) were consolidated for trial or sentencing. 31 U.S.S.G. Sec. 4A1.2, comment (n. 3). 32 On February 6, 1991, Davis pled guilty to a total of four charges for selling cocaine, as set forth in three separate indictments. The first indictment charged Davis with cocaine sales on August 29 and September 22, 1989; the second indictment charged Davis with selling cocaine on April 1, 1990; and the third indictment charged Davis with selling cocaine on May 5, 1990. Davis was sentenced on all charges on February 6 to separate nine-year terms of imprisonment, but the three judgments of conviction all provided that the sentences were to run concurrently. 33 Davis contends that, because he pled guilty and was sentenced on all of the state charges on the same day, the sentences were consolidated within the meaning of application note 3 to section 4A1.2. Davis also contends that he was not arrested after the August 29, 1989, sale or after either of the 1990 sales, and that no intervening arrest occurred. The district court correctly noted, however, that Davis' career offender status depended upon whether he had two prior felony convictions, and that the government was not obligated to demonstrate that each state judgment of conviction arose from a separate arrest. While it is unclear whether Davis was arrested after the first, third, or fourth cocaine sale, the record is clear that Davis was arrested and posted bond, after the September 22, 1989, sale. Consequently, an arrest intervened between the offenses charged in the first indictment and the offenses charged in the second and third indictments. Under application note 3 to section 4A1.2, the sentences imposed for those offenses were therefore unrelated, with the result that career offender status was properly imposed. 5 34 AFFIRMED.