Court Opinion

ID: 2964763
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2015-09-21 21:30:41.700629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:43:01.081751
License: Public Domain

USCA1 Opinion

	

                            UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT
                                 ____________________

        No. 96-2332

                              UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                                      Appellee,

                                          v.

                                MICHAEL V. SCHOFIELD,

                                Defendant, Appellant.

                                 ____________________

                     APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

                           FOR THE DISTRICT OF RHODE ISLAND

                    [Hon. Ronald R. Lagueux, U.S. District Judge]
                                             ___________________

                                 ____________________

                                        Before

                                Torruella, Chief Judge,
                                           ___________

                           Campbell, Senior Circuit Judge,
                                     ____________________

                              and Boudin, Circuit Judge.
                                          _____________

                                 ____________________

            George J. West, by Appointment of the Court, for appellant.
            ______________
            Margaret E.  Curran, Assistant United  States Attorney, with  whom
            ___________________
        Sheldon Whitehouse,  United States  Attorney, and Gerard  B. Sullivan,
        __________________                                ___________________
        Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief for the United States.

                                 ____________________

                                    June 10, 1997
                                 ____________________

                 Per Curiam.  Michael Schofield pled  guilty to one count
                 __________

            of  being a  "felon in  possession" of  a firearm,  18 U.S.C.

              922(g),  and received  a mandatory  minimum sentence  of 15

            years  imprisonment  under  the  Armed  Career  Criminal  Act

            ("ACCA"),  id.   924(e)(1).   He  now appeals  this sentence,
                       ___

            arguing that certain prior  state convictions in Rhode Island

            do not count as "predicate offenses" triggering the ACCA.  We

            disagree and affirm.

                 The  ACCA   establishes  a  15-year   mandatory  minimum

            sentence for any person  who violates section 922(g)  and has

            three  prior convictions "for  a violent felony  or a serious

            drug offense, or both,  committed on occasions different from

            one another."   18 U.S.C.   924(e)(1).   Prior to Schofield's

            guilty plea, the government filed an information charging him

            with six  prior "violent felony" convictions,  which are also

            described  in his  Presentence Investigation  Report ("PSR").

            On appeal,  he  does not  challenge the  classification as  a

            violent felony  of one  robbery conviction.    See PSR    40.
                                                           ___

            Schofield   does,  however,   argue  that   the   other  five

            convictions  were  not  for  "violent  felonies"  within  the

            meaning of the statute.

                 Schofield's  argument  might  seem   extraordinary  with

            respect to  his prior  conviction for second  degree robbery.

            See  PSR    38.   In the  course  of that  offense, Schofield
            ___

            knocked  his victim  to the  pavement and  stole  her purse--

                                         -2-
                                         -2-

            certainly  "violent"  conduct.   But the  ACCA operates  at a

            level of  abstraction  and requires  courts,  in  determining

            predicate  convictions,  to   employ  "a  formal  categorical

            approach, looking  only to  the statutory definitions  of the

            prior offenses,  and not  to the particular  facts underlying

            those  convictions."  Taylor v. United  States, 495 U.S. 575,
                                  ______    ______________

            600 (1990).

                 Nevertheless,  Rhode  Island's  second   degree  robbery

            offense is  plainly a predicate  offense for purposes  of the

            ACCA.    The  statute--unchanged  in  pertinent  part   since

            Schofield's violation in 1991--defines second  degree robbery

            as  "robbery or  other larceny  from the  person by  force or

            threat, where there is no weapon and no injury and the victim

            is  neither a handicapped person or an elderly person."  R.I.

            Gen.  Laws    11-39-1.   The  "force  or threat"  requirement

            undoubtedly brings the offense  within the ACCA's category of

            violent felonies, which includes any felony that, inter alia,
                                                              __________

            "has  as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use

            of  physical force against the person of another."  18 U.S.C.

              924(e)(2)(B).1

                                
            ____________________

                 1Accord  United States v.  Brown, 52  F.3d 415,  426 (2d
                  ______  _____________     _____
            Cir.  1995)  (New  York  attempted robbery  conviction  is  a
            "violent  felony"),  cert. denied,  116  S.  Ct. 754  (1996);
                                 ____________
            United  States v. Presley, 52  F.3d 64, 69  (4th Cir.), cert.
            ______________    _______                               _____
            denied, 116 S. Ct. 237 (1995) (Virginia robbery conviction is
            ______
            "violent felony"); United States  v. Dickerson, 901 F.2d 579,
                               _____________     _________
            584 (7th Cir. 1990)  (Illinois robbery conviction is "violent
            felony").

                                         -3-
                                         -3-

                 We  are  left  to  determine  whether  one  or  more  of

            Schofield's breaking and entering  convictions can serve as a

            predicate  offense, bringing  to  three the  total number  of

            "violent  felonies."    One  of  those  convictions  was  for

            breaking  and entering  a  commercial or  public building  in

            violation of R.I.  Gen. Laws   11-8-4.   See  PSR   39.2   We
                                                     ___

            have  previously  held  that convictions  for  conspiracy  to

            violate this  same statute are "violent  felonies" within the

            meaning of  U.S.S.G.   4B1.2(1), United States  v. Fiore, 983
                                             _____________     _____

            F.2d  1, 4  (1st  Cir. 1992),  cert.  denied, 507  U.S.  1024
                                           _____________

            (1993); and cases  interpreting that provision  are pertinent

            in  construing the  ACCA's "violent  felonies"  category, see
                                                                      ___

            United States  v. Winter, 22 F.3d 15, 18 n.3 (1st Cir. 1994).
            _____________     ______

            (Under  Taylor,  it  is  irrelevant whether  the  school  was
                    ______

            occupied  or  there  was  any  actual  threatened  violence.)

            Because the  schoolhouse breaking and entering  offense was a

            violent felony, we need not consider the other three breaking

            and entering convictions.

                 Finally,  Schofield  contends  that  the  various  prior

            offenses were not "committed  on occasions different from one

                                
            ____________________

                 2As  Schofield observes,  the state  judgment and  other
            documents do not indicate  the specific breaking and entering
            statute under  which Schofield was convicted.   But Schofield
            does not  dispute the PSR's  portrayal of the  offense, which
            involved  the  breaking  and  entering  of  a  public  school
            building.   Section 11-8-4 is the  only Rhode Island breaking
            and entering statute  that would have applied to  this crime.
            See R.I. Gen. Laws   11-8-2 et seq.
            ___                         _______

                                         -4-
                                         -4-

            another,"  as required by section 924(e)(1).  But there is no

            question that the  three predicate offenses on which  we have

            relied  took  place  on  different  dates  and  at  different

            locations,  and that is all the ACCA requires.  United States
                                                            _____________

            v.  Riddle, 47  F.3d 460,  462 (1st  Cir. 1995).   "Congress,
                ______

            thinking  primarily  about  the  protection  of  the  public,

            adopted a  definition of  armed career criminal  that ignores

            the  duration of  the career  . .  . or  the lack  of lengthy

            intervals or arrests between  the crimes."  Id.   Because the
                                                        ___

            district court  properly sentenced Schofield  under the ACCA,

            we  need not reach his challenges to the alternative sentence

            imposed under the Sentencing Guidelines.

                 Affirmed.
                 ________

                                         -5-
                                         -5-