Court Opinion

ID: 9896557
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-13 18:01:59.155922+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:15:07.857317
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-14338    Document: 26-1     Date Filed: 11/13/2023   Page: 1 of 8

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                   In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                                No. 22-14338
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                      Plaintiﬀ-Appellee,
       versus
       ORTAZ SHARP,

                                                  Defendant-Appellant.

                          ____________________

                 Appeal from the United States District Court
                    for the Northern District of Georgia
                   D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cr-00450-LMM-1
                          ____________________
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       2                      Opinion of the Court                  22-14338

       Before ROSENBAUM, BRASHER, and ABUDU, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
               Ortaz Sharp appeals his fifteen-year prison sentence for pos-
       session of a firearm as a convicted felon. He contends that the dis-
       trict court erred in imposing the enhanced minimum penalty under
       the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”). See 18 U.S.C. §
       924(e)(1). In particular, he asserts that his prior Georgia convic-
       tions for terroristic threats and burglary are not “violent felonies”
       for purposes of the ACCA. After careful review, we affirm Sharp’s
       sentence.
                                         I.
              In 2020, Sharp pled guilty to possession of a firearm as a con-
       victed felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Sharp’s presen-
       tence investigation report (“PSR”) recommended that he qualified
       for an enhanced minimum sentence under the ACCA. See 18
       U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). The PSR cited three prior Georgia convictions
       as predicate offenses: robbery by force, burglary, and aggravated
       battery. The PSR also noted that Sharp had a Georgia conviction
       for making terroristic threats.
              The district court found that Sharp’s robbery conviction did
       not qualify as a predicate offense and that, as a result, he lacked the
       three qualifying offenses necessary to trigger the ACCA’s enhanced
       minimum penalty of fifteen years. The court sentenced Sharp to
       110 months’ imprisonment.
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       22-14338                Opinion of the Court                          3

               At the time of Sharp’s sentencing, our precedent held that a
       conviction under Georgia’s terroristic threats statute, O.C.G.A.
       § 16-11-37 (2010), was “indivisible,” and that the least culpable con-
       duct made unlawful by the statute did not qualify as an ACCA pred-
       icate offense. United States v. Oliver (“Oliver II”), 955 F.3d 887, 896–
       97 (11th Cir. 2020). Ten days after sentencing, though, we vacated
       Oliver II and, in its place, issued a new opinion holding that the stat-
       ute was in fact “divisible,” and that a portion of the statute qualified
       as a predicate crime under the ACCA. United States v. Oliver (“Oliver
       III”), 962 F.3d 1311, 1321 (11th Cir. 2020).
               The government appealed Sharp’s sentence, and we vacated
       and remanded for resentencing in light of Oliver III. United States v.
       Sharp, 21 F.4th 1282 (11th Cir. 2021). We rejected Sharp’s argu-
       ment that the government had waived reliance on the terroristic-
       threats conviction for purposes of the ACCA. Id. at 1286–87. And
       we remanded with instructions for the court to “review evidence”
       and “make factual findings about Sharp’s conviction under Geor-
       gia’s terroristic threats statute, and whether this conviction quali-
       fies as an ACCA predicate.” Id. at 1287–88.
                On remand, the district court, after reviewing underlying
       state-court records, concluded that Sharp’s terroristic-threats con-
       viction qualified as an ACCA predicate “violent felony.” Citing Ol-
       iver III, the court explained that the statute was divisible and that a
       person could be found guilty of making terroristic threats either
       “with the purpose of terrorizing another,” which would qualify as
       a predicate offense, or with “reckless disregard of the risk of causing
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       4                         Opinion of the Court                      22-14338

       such terror,” which would not. See United States v. Gary, 74 F.4th
       1332, 1335 (11th Cir. 2023) (“In Borden v. United States, [141 S. Ct.
       1817 (2021)], the Supreme Court held that a criminal offense that
       requires only a mens rea of recklessness cannot qualify as a ‘violent
       felony’ under the ACCA.”). Based on its review of the indictment
       and plea colloquy, and notwithstanding Sharp’s Alford plea 1, the
       court found that Sharp had been charged and convicted under the
       “purposeful,” rather than “reckless,” prong of the statute. The
       court therefore concluded that the terroristic-threats conviction
       was a violent felony, and that, as a result, Sharp had three violent
       felonies under the ACCA.
             The district court sentenced Sharp to 180 months’ imprison-
       ment, the minimum sentence mandated by the ACCA, see 18
       U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). Sharp now appeals.
                                             II.
              We review de novo whether a defendant’s prior conviction
       qualifies as a predicate offense under the ACCA. United States v.
       Deshazior, 882 F.3d 1352, 1354 (11th Cir. 2018). We review any un-
       derlying factual findings for clear error. See United States v. Diaz-
       Calderone, 716 F.3d 1345, 1348 (11th Cir. 2013).

       1 “An Alford plea is a guilty plea where the defendant maintains a claim of
       innocence to the underlying criminal conduct charged but admits that suffi-
       cient evidence exists to convict him of the offense.” United States v. Ramirez-
       Gonzalez, 755 F.3d 1267, 1273 (11th Cir. 2014).
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       22-14338                Opinion of the Court                          5

              Under the ACCA, if a defendant violates § 922(g) and has at
       least three prior convictions for a “violent felony” or a “serious
       drug offense” committed on separate occasions, the mandatory
       minimum sentence is fifteen years’ imprisonment. 18 U.S.C.
       § 924(e)(1). A “violent felony” must “ha[ve] as an element the use,
       attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the per-
       son of another,” or be equivalent to the generic version of certain
       enumerated crimes, including “burglary.” Id. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i), (ii).
               To determine whether a prior conviction qualifies as a vio-
       lent felony, we use a “categorical approach,” looking “only to the
       statutory definitions of the prior offenses rather than the underly-
       ing facts of the prior conviction.” Gary, 74 F.4th at 1334 (quotation
       marks omitted). “[W]e must presume that the conviction rested
       upon the least of the acts criminalized by the statute.” Oliver III,
       962 F.3d at 1316. If this least culpable conduct does not necessarily
       involve “the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical
       force,” the statute does not categorically qualify as an ACCA pred-
       icate offense. Id. Where a statute is “divisible”—that is, where it
       sets out one or more elements, rather than means, in the alterna-
       tive—we may go a step further and consult a “limited class of doc-
       uments, including the indictment, jury instructions, or plea agree-
       ment and colloquy,” to determine which of the multiple, alterna-
       tive crimes the defendant was convicted of committing. Id. at 1317.
                                         A.
              Sharp first challenges the district court’s classification of his
       terroristic-threats conviction as a violent felony. In Oliver III, we
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       6                      Opinion of the Court                 22-14338

       held that Georgia’s terroristic-threats statute, § 16-11-37(a) (2010),
       was divisible, “contain[ing] a list of divisible elements in the form
       of alternative threats, each one of which constitutes a separate
       crime.” 962 F.3d at 1320. And we concluded, based on the indict-
       ment, that the defendant had been convicted “under the divisible
       portion of § 16-11-37(a) that criminalizes a threat[] to commit any
       crime of violence . . . with the purpose of terrorizing another.” Id.
       We held that a conviction under this portion of § 16-11-37(a) had
       as an element the threatened use of physical force and therefore
       qualified as a violent felony under the ACCA. See id. at 1320–21.
                Sharp was convicted under the same version of the terroris-
       tic-threats statute at issue in Oliver III. And like the defendant in
       Oliver III, Sharp pled guilty to an indictment charging him with
       “threaten[ing] to commit a crime of violence . . . with the purpose
       of terrorizing” another person. That offense, according to Oliver
       III, is a violent felony. See id.
              Sharp argues based on the plea colloquy that he nevertheless
       “may have possessed a mens rea of recklessness.” See Gary, 74 F.4th
       at 1335 (“[A] criminal offense that requires only a mens rea of reck-
       lessness cannot qualify as a ‘violent felony’ under the ACCA.”). But
       our inquiry looks “only to the statutory definitions of the prior of-
       fenses rather than the underlying facts of the prior conviction.” Id.
       at 1334. And here, as in Oliver III, the record indicates that Sharp
       was convicted “under the divisible portion of § 16-11-37(a) that
       criminalizes a threat[] to commit any crime of violence . . . with the
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       22-14338                   Opinion of the Court                                7

       purpose of terrorizing another,” not with “reckless disregard.” Ol-
       iver III, 962 F.3d at 1319–20.
             In short, in light of Oliver III, the district court correctly
       found that Sharp’s terroristic-threats conviction qualified as an
       ACCA predicate. 2
                                              B.
              Next, Sharp contends that his Georgia burglary conviction
       does not qualify as a violent felony because it is broader than the
       generic federal definition of burglary in two ways: the location ele-
       ment and the unlawful-entry element. The government argues,
       and we agree, that our decision in United States v. Gundy, 842 F.3d
       1156 (11th Cir. 2016), forecloses Sharp’s argument.
              In Gundy, we examined the Georgia burglary statute under
       which Sharp was convicted. See id. at 1159. We held that the stat-
       ute was divisible. Id. at 1167. And after reviewing the record, we
       concluded that the defendant’s “burglary convictions involved
       these three elements: (1) an unlawful entry (2) into a dwelling
       house or building (3) with intent to commit a crime therein.” Id.
       at 1169. We held that “[t]hese elements substantially conform to
       the generic definition of burglary.” Id. Accordingly, we concluded
       that the defendant’s burglary convictions qualified as violent

       2 Sharp’s invocation of the rule of lenity is misplaced because there is “no am-
       biguity for the rule of lenity to resolve.” Shular v. United States, 589 U.S. __,
       140 S. Ct. 779, 787 (2020).
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       8                      Opinion of the Court                22-14338

       felonies under the ACCA’s enumerated crimes clause. Id.; see 18
       U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(b)(ii).
              Sharp acknowledges that Gundy is binding, even if wrongly
       decided, but he maintains that it does not foreclose his argument
       that the unlawful-entry element is overbroad, since that element
       was not addressed in the opinion. As Sharp notes, though, “Gundy
       himself raised this very objection to the Georgia burglary statute”
       in his briefing on appeal. And “we have categorically rejected an
       overlooked reason or argument exception to the prior-panel-prec-
       edent rule.” In re Lambrix, 776 F.3d 789, 794 (11th Cir. 2015)
       (“[U]nder this Court’s prior-panel-precedent rule, a prior panel’s
       holding is binding on all subsequent panels unless and until it is
       overruled or undermined to the point of abrogation by the Su-
       preme Court or by this court sitting en banc.”). Thus, Gundy bars
       Sharp’s challenge to the classification of his burglary conviction as
       a violent felony.
                                       III.
             For these reasons, Sharp has not shown that the district
       court erred in sentencing him as an armed career criminal under
       the ACCA. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1).
             AFFIRMED.