Court Opinion

ID: 9407831
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-07-10 15:01:49.449993+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:20:40.158905
License: Public Domain

United States Court of Appeals
                            For the Eighth Circuit
                        ___________________________

                                No. 22-1675
                        ___________________________

                           United States of America

                                     Plaintiff - Appellee

                                       v.

                         Christopher Lee Cungtion, Jr.

                                  Defendant - Appellant
                                ____________

                    Appeal from United States District Court
                for the Northern District of Iowa - Cedar Rapids
                                 ____________

                         Submitted: February 13, 2023
                            Filed: July 10, 2023
                               ____________

Before SMITH, Chief Judge, STRAS and KOBES, Circuit Judges.
                              ____________

STRAS, Circuit Judge.

       Christopher Cungtion, Jr., received a 63-month sentence for possessing a
firearm as a felon. The question for us is whether a prior conviction for
“inten[tionally]” causing “bodily injury,” Iowa Code § 708.4(2), qualifies as a
“crime of violence,” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a). Like the district court, 1 we conclude it
does.

                                          I.

       Cungtion took off running during a routine traffic stop and left a loaded
9-millimeter pistol behind. Suspicious that he may be hiding something, the officers
brought in a drug-sniffing dog. Once the dog alerted, they searched the inside of the
vehicle and found both the pistol and marijuana in his girlfriend’s purse. Based on
a prior felony conviction, he could not possess a gun, so he eventually pleaded guilty
to a single felon-in-possession count. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2).

       His criminal history then played a prominent role at sentencing. In particular,
he received an additional criminal-history point for a “crime of violence,” U.S.S.G.
§ 4B1.2(a): “inten[tionally]” causing “bodily injury,” Iowa Code § 708.4(2). See
U.S.S.G. § 4A1.1(e) (adding one point for every “crime of violence”). The single
point, though it may not sound like much, added 13 to 16 months to the range and
left him with a final sentence of 63 months in prison.

                                         II.

       Cungtion’s argument is straightforward: an Iowa conviction for willful injury
is not a “crime of violence.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a). As relevant here, the Sentencing
Guidelines define a “crime of violence” as a felony offense that “has as an element
the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of
another.” Id. Called the “force” or “elements” clause, it requires us to determine
whether one element of willful injury is the “use . . . of physical force against”
another. United States v. Green, 70 F.4th 478, 479–480 (8th Cir. 2023); see Mathis
v. United States, 579 U.S. 500, 504 (2016). This inquiry is categorical in the sense

      1
        The Honorable C.J. Williams, United States District Judge for the Northern
District of Iowa.

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that only the definition of the crime matters, not the defendant’s real-life conduct.
See Mathis, 579 U.S. at 504. Our review is de novo. See United States v. McGee,
890 F.3d 730, 735 (8th Cir. 2018).

                                          A.

       The willful-injury statute prohibits “an act which is not justified and which is
intended to cause serious injury to another.” Iowa Code § 708.4. There are two
“class[es]” of the crime: a lesser version requiring “bodily injury” and an aggravated
form when “serious injury” results. Id. (emphases added) (defining the Class C and
D versions of the crime).

      The parties agree on a couple of points. First, the statute creates two separate
crimes, divisible by the extent of the victim’s injury. See United States v. Schneider,
905 F.3d 1088, 1090–91 (8th Cir. 2018) (explaining divisibility). Second,
Cungtion’s prior conviction was for the less-serious, bodily-injury variety. See
Shepard v. United States, 544 U.S. 13, 26 (2005) (listing documents we can examine
in determining the offense a defendant committed). Knowing the exact crime
narrows the question for us: does trying to inflict “serious injury” but only causing
“bodily injury” necessarily involve the “use . . . of physical force against the person
of another”? U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1).

       Our precedent says “yes.” Just two years ago, we concluded that this exact
offense qualifies “because, to commit . . . [it], a defendant must actually” use enough
force to harm the victim. United States v. Clark, 1 F.4th 632, 637 (8th Cir. 2021).2
We relied on the oft-repeated maxim that “[o]ne cannot cause bodily injury to
another without using the force capable of producing that injury.” Id. (citation

      2
        Clark interpreted the phrase “violent felony” in the Armed Career Criminal
Act, see 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i), but the language defining a “crime of violence”
in the Sentencing Guidelines is the same, see Green, 70 F.4th at 480. See Clark, 1
F.4th at 636 (treating the two as “interchangeable”).

                                         -3-
omitted); see United States v. Castleman, 572 U.S. 157, 174 (2014) (Scalia, J.,
concurring in part and concurring in the judgment) (first stating it); United States v.
Rice, 813 F.3d 704, 706 (8th Cir. 2016) (citation omitted) (first adopting it). If that
was it, there would be little more to say.

                                          B.

       A recent development complicates the case. In Borden v. United States, 141
S. Ct. 1817 (2021), the Supreme Court concluded that the force clause “categorically
excludes crimes that can be committed recklessly,” United States v. Hoxworth, 11
F.4th 693, 695 (8th Cir. 2021) (summarizing Borden’s holding). The Justices split
on why, but what matters is that Borden has required us to reexamine what we have
done before and even abandon a few previously settled decisions. See, e.g., id.
(abrogating United States v. Fogg, 836 F.3d 951, 956 (8th Cir. 2016)); King v. United
States, 142 S. Ct. 332 (2021) (mem.) (vacating and remanding United States v. Ross,
969 F.3d 829 (8th Cir. 2020), in light of Borden).

       The question here is whether Clark is one of them. As Cungtion argues,
Borden casts doubt on one aspect of Clark’s reasoning. It is no longer true, at least
in the case of recklessly caused injury, that “[o]ne cannot cause bodily injury to
another without using the force capable of causing that injury.” Clark, 1 F.4th at
637 (citation omitted). To the extent we used that language as an easy,
one-size-fits-all shortcut to a “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act
or a “crime of violence” under the Sentencing Guidelines, that path is no longer
open.

       A simple example shows why. Suppose a texting driver hits a pedestrian,
which violates a statute that prohibits “reckless driving causing bodily injury.” By
definition, “bodily injury” occurred if he violated the statute, but there still was no
“use . . . of physical force against the person of another.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1);
see United States v. Frazier, 48 F.4th 884, 886 (8th Cir. 2022) (“The upshot of
Borden is that a crime committed with a mens rea of recklessness does not involve
                                         -4-
the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of
another.” (citation omitted)). In an example like this one, the maxim may well show
that there was violent force of some kind, but not that the driver actually “use[d]” it
“against the person of another.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1); see Frazier, 48 F.4th at
886–87 (describing how the against-another requirement works).

       Still, Clark is one of those cases that survives Borden. Committing willful
injury in Iowa requires an unjustified “act” that is “intended to cause serious injury.”
Iowa Code § 708.4. The fact that the statute requires an intent to cause harm to
another person necessarily means that anyone who violates it has used “physical
force against the person of another.”3 See Borden, 141 S. Ct. at 1826 (plurality
opinion) (describing the “targeting” requirement of the force clause); id. at 1835
(Thomas, J., concurring in the judgment) (explaining why the “use of physical force”
requires an “intentional act[] designed to cause harm” (quoting Voisine v. United
States, 579 U.S. 686, 713 (2016) (Thomas, J., dissenting))). Borden, in other words,
has required us to supplement Clark’s reasoning, not overrule it. It remains good
law.

                                          III.

      We accordingly affirm the judgment of the district court.
                     ______________________________

      3
        We also reject the argument that the Supreme Court’s discussion in Borden
of a federal domestic-violence statute, see 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(33)(A), requires us to
overrule Clark. See Borden, 141 S. Ct. at 1832–34. The problem with that statute
is the missing “against[-]another” language, which does nothing to undermine our
understanding of what qualifies as “bodily injury.” See Jima v. Barr, 942 F.3d 468,
472 (8th Cir. 2019); Rice, 813 F.3d at 705–06 & n.2.

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