Court Opinion

ID: 9929675
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-03 01:00:38.943726+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:43:09.540975
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-10265      Document: 00517054296        Page: 1     Date Filed: 02/02/2024

           United States Court of Appeals
                for the Fifth Circuit
                                 ____________
                                                                     United States Court of Appeals
                                                                              Fifth Circuit
                                   No. 22-10265
                                 ____________                               FILED
                                                                     February 2, 2024
   United States of America,                                           Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                            Clerk
                                                             Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                       versus

   Corey Deyon Duffey; Jarvis Dupree Ross; Tony R.
   Hewitt,

                                           Defendants—Appellants.
                   ______________________________

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Northern District of Texas
                            USDC No. 3:08-CR-167-1
                   ______________________________

   Before Southwick, Engelhardt, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
   Cory T. Wilson, Circuit Judge:
          The primary issue in this appeal is whether § 403 of the First Step Act
   applies to post-enactment resentencings of defendants whose pre-enactment
   sentences were vacated after the law was enacted. It does not, so Appellants’
   § 403 claims lack merit. Further, Appellant Duffey’s challenge to the
   application of a sentencing enhancement at his resentencing and Appellant
   Hewitt’s challenge to his remaining § 924(c) convictions both fail.
   Accordingly, we affirm as to all issues.
Case: 22-10265      Document: 00517054296          Page: 2    Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                    No. 22-10265

                                         I.
          Appellants Corey Deyon Duffey, Jarvis Dupree Ross, and Tony R.
   Hewitt were convicted in 2009 on numerous counts of conspiracy, attempted
   bank robbery, and bank robbery, as well as using a firearm in furtherance
   thereof, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). See United States v. Duffey, 456 F.
   App’x 434, 438 & nn.1–4 (5th Cir. 2012). On direct appeal, this court
   reversed the convictions for the attempted robberies and the corresponding
   firearms charges, affirmed the other convictions, and remanded to the
   district court for resentencing.     Id. at 444–45.    Appellants were each
   resentenced in 2012. We affirmed these new sentences. See United States v.
   Ross, 582 F. App’x 528, 529–30 (5th Cir. 2014).
          At the time we affirmed Appellants’ new sentences, an initial violation
   of § 924(c) required a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. 18 U.S.C.
   § 924(c)(1)(A)(i) (effective 2012–2018).        If a “second or subsequent”
   violation was committed, each such conviction was to result in a mandatory
   sentence of “not less than 25 years[.]” § 924(c)(1)(C)(i). Also at that time,
   the initial and subsequent convictions could be “stacked,” such that a first,
   second, and any subsequent convictions could arise out of the same incident
   or conduct. See Deal v. United States, 508 U.S. 129, 132–33 (1993). Thus,
   when Appellants were convicted under § 924(c)(1)(A)(i) for using a firearm
   in connection with a conspiracy to commit bank robbery, they received five-
   year minimum sentences. Because they were also convicted for subsequent
   § 924(c) violations arising out of the same conduct—convictions that were
   stackable—Appellants each received 25-year mandatory minimum sentences
   for every additional § 924(c) conviction.
          Appellants filed unsuccessful motions to vacate, set aside, or correct
   their sentences under 28 U.S.C. § 2255. See United States v. Ross, No. 3:15-
   CV-3233-B-BH, No. 3:08-CR-167-B-BH(3), 2017 WL 3328120, at *1 (N.D.

                                          2
Case: 22-10265       Document: 00517054296             Page: 3      Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                        No. 22-10265

   Tex. June 22, 2017), adopting report and recommendation, 2017 WL 3314195,
   at *1 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 3, 2017); United States v. Duffey, No. 3:15-CV-0500-B-
   BH, No. 3:08-CR-0167-B(1), 2017 WL 6989111, at *1 (N.D. Tex. Dec. 29,
   2017), adopting report and recommendation, 2018 WL 461126, at *1 (N.D. Tex.
   Jan. 17, 2018); United States v. Hewitt, No. 3:16-CV-603-B-BH, No. 3:08-CR-
   167-B(2), 2018 WL 3853708, at *1 (N.D. Tex. July 15, 2018), adopting report
   and recommendation, 2018 WL 3845232, at *1 (N.D. Tex. Aug. 13, 2018).
           In 2020, Appellants filed motions for authorization to file successive
   § 2255 motions in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v.
   Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319, 2336 (2019), which held that conspiracy-
   predicated § 924(c) convictions do not qualify as “crimes of violence.”
   Appellants argued that several of their convictions—and resulting 25-year
   mandatory minimum sentences—were unconstitutional because the
   predicate offense for the enhancement, i.e., conspiracy to commit bank
   robbery, no longer qualified as a crime of violence under § 924(c)(3). We
   granted Appellants’ motions.
           Appellants then filed their successive habeas applications in the
   district court, which granted relief. The district court vacated Appellants’
   § 924(c) conspiracy convictions and accompanying sentences, vacated the
   sentences on all remaining convictions, and ordered resentencing.
           Prior to Appellants’ resentencing hearings, they each filed objections
   to their respective presentence reports (PSR), arguing, inter alia, that § 403
   of the First Step Act of 2018 applied to their resentencing. Specifically, they
   argued they were subject only to the five-year mandatory minimum sentence
   set by § 924(c) under § 403, which eliminated sentence stacking. 1 The
          _____________________
          1
            Section 403(a) of the First Step Act subjects defendants to only the five-year
   minimum sentence for multiple convictions arising out of the same conduct, when no other
   § 924(c) conviction has become “final.” First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391,

                                              3
Case: 22-10265        Document: 00517054296              Page: 4      Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                         No. 22-10265

   Government and the probation officer responded that § 403 did not apply
   because Appellants were serving valid sentences at the time that the First
   Step Act was enacted on December 21, 2018. The Government maintained
   this view during Duffey’s and Ross’s resentencings.                      However, the
   Government changed its position by the time of Hewitt’s resentencing.
   Similarly, on appeal, the Government asserts that § 403 should apply across
   the board to Appellants’ resentencings.
           In addition to Appellants’ § 403 arguments, Duffey and Hewitt each
   raised additional arguments at their 2022 resentencings that are at issue in
   this appeal. Duffey objected to the application of a two-level adjustment
   under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(4)(B) for physical restraint of the victim, arguing
   that even though the bank manager was held at gunpoint, moved to the vault,
   and ordered to open it during one of the bank robberies, he was not physically
   restrained as defined in the Guidelines. Hewitt moved to dismiss his
   remaining § 924(c) convictions, arguing that the district court’s vacatur of
   his § 924(c)(1)(A)(i) conviction required vacatur of all his § 924(c)
   convictions.
           The district court overruled Appellants’ objections—including
   Duffey’s physical-restraint enhancement objection— and denied Hewitt’s
   motion to dismiss. Appellants were then resentenced as follows: Duffey
   received 1,560 months imprisonment; Ross received 1,625 months
   imprisonment; and Hewitt received 1,625 months imprisonment. Appellants
   now challenge those sentences.

           _____________________
   § 403(a), 132 Stat. 5194, 5221. Section 403(b) provides that the Act “shall apply to any
   offense that was committed before the date of enactment of th[e] Act, if a sentence for the
   offense has not been imposed as of such date of enactment.” Id. § 403(b), 132 Stat. 5194,
   5222.

                                               4
Case: 22-10265      Document: 00517054296          Page: 5   Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                    No. 22-10265

                                        II.
          We review questions of statutory interpretation de novo. United States
   v. Tilford, 810 F.3d 370, 371 (5th Cir. 2016). We review the district court’s
   interpretation and application of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo and its
   factual findings for clear error. United States v. Garcia, 857 F.3d 708, 711–12
   (5th Cir. 2017). On matters of jurisdiction, our review is de novo, using the
   same standard as the district court. Gulf Petro Trading Co. v. Nigerian Nat’l
   Petroleum Corp., 512 F.3d 742, 746 (5th Cir. 2008). Questions of law relating
   to a § 2255 application are also reviewed de novo, while factual findings are
   reviewed for clear error. United States v. Wiese, 896 F.3d 720, 723 n.3 (5th
   Cir. 2018).
                                        III.
          We must first determine whether § 403(a) of the First Step Act
   applies to Appellants’ latest resentencings. We conclude it does not.
          “[W]e start where we always do: with the text of the statute.” Van
   Buren v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 1648, 1654 (2021). Section 403(b) of the
   First Step Act states that § 403(a) “shall apply to any offense that was
   committed before the date of enactment of th[e] Act, if a sentence for the
   offense has not been imposed as of such date of enactment.” In the mine run
   of pending cases, application of this language is straightforward. But does the
   First Step Act’s reach encompass prior offenses for which a pre-Act sentence
   is later vacated? Can it be said that such a sentence “has not been imposed”?
          These questions have “vexed[] and split[] our sister circuits.” United
   States v. Mitchell, 38 F.4th 382, 386 (3d Cir. 2022). On one side of the split,
   the Third, Fourth, and Ninth Circuits have held that the First Step Act
   “requires [courts] to treat the vacated sentence as if it were never
   imposed[]” so that § 403(b) encompasses offenses involving the post-
   enactment vacatur of pre-enactment sentences. United States v. Merrell, 37

                                          5
Case: 22-10265        Document: 00517054296              Page: 6       Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                          No. 22-10265

   F.4th 571, 577–78 (9th Cir. 2022); see also Mitchell, 38 F.4th at 389; United
   States v. Bethea, 841 Fed. App’x 544, 550–51 (4th Cir. 2021). 2 On the other
   side, the Sixth Circuit has held that § 403(b) does not apply when,
   notwithstanding post-enactment vacatur, “a sentence had been imposed”
   prior to the date of enactment. United States v. Jackson, 995 F.3d 522, 525
   (6th Cir. 2021); see also United States v. Carpenter, 80 F.4th 790, 791 (6th Cir.
   2023) (Kethledge, J., joined by Sutton, C.J., Thapar, and Bush, JJ.,
   concurring in the denial of rehearing en banc) (“[F]or purposes of precluding
   the Act’s retroactivity as to the sentence for a particular conviction—the
   imposition of any sentence will do. For § 403(b) simply asks whether, as of
   the Act’s date of enactment (December 21, 2018), ‘a’ sentence has or ‘has
   not been imposed[.]’”) (citation omitted). As explained below, we agree
   with the Sixth Circuit’s interpretation of § 403(b) because it is the reading
   more faithful to the statute’s text.
           “When faced with questions of statutory construction, ‘we must first
   determine whether the statutory text is plain and unambiguous’ and, ‘[i]f it
   is, we must apply the statute according to its terms.’” Asadi v. G.E. Energy
   (USA) L.L.C., 720 F.3d 620, 622 (5th Cir. 2013) (quoting Carcieri v. Salazar,
   555 U.S. 379, 387 (2009)). “The plainness or ambiguity of statutory language
   is determined by reference to the language itself, the specific context in which
   that language is used, and the broader context of the statute as a whole.” Id.
   (quoting Robinson v. Shell Oil Co., 519 U.S. 337, 341 (1997)). “If the statutory

           _____________________
           2
             Additionally, the Seventh Circuit has held that § 403(b) applies to a convicted
   defendant whose sentence had been vacated prior to the enactment date but remained
   unsentenced on the enactment date. See United States v. Uriarte, 975 F.3d 596, 601 (7th Cir.
   2020) (en banc). Notably, the Seventh Circuit appears to have left open the question of
   whether § 403(b) would apply to post-enactment vacaturs. See id. at 605 (discussing
   “Congress’s intent not to reopen finished proceedings because of the change in the law
   effected by the First Step Act”) (emphasis in original).

                                                6
Case: 22-10265      Document: 00517054296          Page: 7    Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                    No. 22-10265

   text is unambiguous, our inquiry begins and ends with the text.” Id. (quoting
   BedRoc Ltd. v. United States, 541 U.S. 176, 183 (2004)).
          Appellant Hewitt and the Government both argue that § 403(b)’s
   reference to “a sentence” is “ambiguous as to whether it refers to the
   historical fact of the imposition of a sentence, regardless of its validity, or
   whether it refers to the imposition of a sentence with continuing validity.”
   The thrust of their ambiguity argument stems from § 403(b)’s use of the
   present-perfect tense in the phrase “has not been imposed[.]”             The
   Government maintains that this language “indicates that Congress was not
   focused on the single point in time of the pronouncement of the judgment,
   but rather on the sentence’s continuing validity.” We disagree.
          As an initial matter, we have previously said that a sentence is
   “imposed” “when the district court pronounces it[.]” United States v.
   Gomez, 960 F.3d 173, 178 (5th Cir. 2020). Thus, the phrase “has not been
   imposed” suggests an act yet to be completed by the district court. See
   Uriarte, 975 F.3d at 606–07 (Barrett, J., dissenting). Put differently, whether
   a sentence has been “imposed” appears to hinge on a district court’s action
   or inaction—not on a defendant’s status. See id. at 607. Because of
   this, § 403(b)’s use of “imposed” puts the “focus on the historical fact” of
   a sentence’s imposition. Id.
          Couple this with § 403(b)’s delineation that the First Step Act applies
   to defendants for whom “a sentence . . . ha[d] not been imposed” as of the
   enactment date. Again, in the mine run of cases, the statute’s application is
   easy: Criminal defendants who had not yet had a sentence imposed as of
   December 21, 2018, fall within the First Step Act’s ambit. Defendants who
   already had a sentence imposed by then do not. Congress unambiguously
   drew the line for the First Step Act’s application based on the date a sentence
   was imposed.

                                          7
Case: 22-10265      Document: 00517054296              Page: 8    Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                       No. 22-10265

          But in today’s case, a question remains: Does § 403(b)’s use of “a
   sentence” mean any sentence—including subsequently vacated ones—or, as
   the parties argue, does it mean only a sentence with continuing validity? The
   answer is the former.
          Section 403(b)’s text does not indicate that Congress intended for the
   First Step Act to apply only to a sentence with continuing validity. The
   Government’s argument to the contrary tracks with the Fourth and Seventh
   Circuits’ reasoning: “Had Congress intended the phrase ‘a sentence’ to
   convey a very broad meaning, it could have used the word ‘any’ as it did
   earlier in the same sentence[.]” Bethea, 841 F. App’x at 549 (quoting Uriarte,
   975 F.3d at 604 (majority opinion)). But that gun kicks as hard as it shoots.
   If Congress meant for the First Step Act’s retroactivity bar to apply only to
   valid sentences, it could easily have said so. Instead, § 403(b)’s use of “the
   indefinite article ‘a’ is broad enough to refer to any sentence that that has
   been imposed for the offense, even one that was subsequently vacated.”
   Uriarte, 975 F.3d at 608 (Barrett, J., dissenting).
          True enough, Congress’s use of “a sentence”—as opposed to “any
   sentence” or “a valid sentence”—could perhaps have been clearer. But
   “[t]he mere observation that the statutory language could be made clearer
   does not make it unclear in the first place.” Jackson, 995 F.3d at 526. Nor
   does it make it ambiguous.          Indeed, “[u]nambiguity does not require
   perfection . . . . [W]e should not reject [§ 403(b)] just because it could be
   made even more clear.” Bethea, 841 F. App’x at 557 (Quattlebaum, J,
   dissenting).
          The parties urge us—admittedly with support from our sister
   circuits—to    focus    on    the     impact       of   sentence   vacatur   when
   interpreting § 403(b). But vacatur has no effect on our interpretation. As the
   Sixth Circuit made clear in Jackson, “vacatur does not erase [Appellants’]

                                            8
Case: 22-10265       Document: 00517054296            Page: 9      Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                       No. 22-10265

   prior sentence[s] from history.” 995 F.3d at 525 (quoting Vacate, Black’s
   Law Dictionary (11th ed. 2019)). “[E]liminating a sentence’s
   prospective legal effect only ‘wipe[s] the slate clean’ looking forward.” Id.
   (quoting Pepper v. United States, 562 U.S. 476 (2011)). Indeed, “vacatur
   wipes the slate clean insofar as the defendant will be sentenced anew,” but it
   “does not require the district court to proceed as if the initial sentencing
   never happened.” Uriarte, 975 F.3d at 608 (Barrett, J., dissenting) (citing
   Pepper, 562 U.S. at 507–08). 3 This makes good sense; otherwise, one who,
   as here, has been in prison for over a decade serving later-vacated sentences
   would nonetheless qualify as “a defendant on whom a sentence has not been
   imposed” as of the First Step Act’s enactment date. Carpenter, 80 F.4th at
   792 (Kethledge, J., concurring) (quoting Merrell, 37 F.4th at 578 (Boggs, J.,
   dissenting)).
          We find a helpful analogue in 18 U.S.C. § 3742(g) for how “a
   defendant’s earlier sentencing” serves “as a temporal marker that identifies
   the substantive rules . . . that the district court must apply when [re-]
   sentencing a particular defendant.” Id. That statute, which addresses
   “[s]entencing upon remand[,]” provides that a “district court to which a
   case is remanded . . . shall apply the guidelines . . . that were in effect on the
   date of the previous sentencing of the defendant prior to the appeal.” § 3742(g)
   (emphasis added). As with § 403(b), § 3742(g)’s reference to the reality of a
   defendant’s prior sentencing does not give the vacated sentence legal effect.
   Carpenter, 80 F.4th at 792 (Kethledge, J., concurring). But it pegs the rules
   that apply to a resentencing on remand to the historical fact of the prior
   sentence. Section 403(b) does the same thing. To construe it differently, a
   district court would be forced paradoxically to “recognize the fact of the
          _____________________
          3
             In any event, even if this “‘clean slate’ principle were sound, a background
   principle cannot overcome statutory text.” Id. at 609.

                                             9
Case: 22-10265        Document: 00517054296              Page: 10       Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                          No. 22-10265

   defendant’s prior sentence for purposes of determining his guidelines
   range . . . but at the same time pretend that sentence never happened for
   purposes of determining the defendant’s mandatory minimum.” Id. We do
   not read § 403(b)’s text to create such incongruity.
           To summarize, we read § 403(b) as drawing the line for § 403(a)’s
   application at the date on which a sentence—whether later-vacated or with
   ongoing validity—was imposed. We do not discern ambiguity in § 403(b)’s
   language. 4 Cf. Gomez, 960 F.3d at 177 (“The Act itself plainly states that
   § 403 is not retroactive: It applies to an offense committed before its
   December 21, 2018 effective date only ‘if a sentence for the offense ha[d] not
   been imposed as of such date.’”); see also United States v. Smith, 967 F.3d
   1196, 1212 (11th Cir. 2020) (“There is no ambiguity in § 403(b). It plainly
   draws a line based on the Act’s enactment date and provides that whether
   the amendments in § 403(a) apply to a case depends on which side of that
   line the imposition of the sentence falls.”). 5 Our analysis thus “begins and
   ends with the text.” Asadi, 720 F.3d at 622 (citation omitted). Applying that
   text, because sentences for Appellants’ offenses had been imposed upon
   them prior to the First Step’s Act’s December 21, 2018 enactment date—
   even though those sentences were later vacated in 2020—§ 403(a) of the
   First Step Act does not apply, as the district court correctly held.

           _____________________
           4
            Because we hold that § 403(b) is unambiguous, we reject Duffey and Ross’s
   arguments that the rule of lenity requires us to read § 403(b) in the light most favorable to
   them. See Shular v. United States, 140 S.Ct. 779, 787 (2020) (“The rule [of lenity] ‘applies
   only when, after consulting traditional canons of statutory construction, we are left with an
   ambiguous statute.’”) (quoting United States v. Shabani, 513 U.S. 10, 17 (1994)).
           5
             Gomez and Smith both interpreted § 403(b) in the context of sentences that had
   been imposed by the district court prior to the First Step Act’s enactment date but
   remained pending on direct appeal as of that date. However, the point remains: Those
   cases agreed that § 403(b)’s language is clear and unambiguous.

                                                10
Case: 22-10265     Document: 00517054296           Page: 11   Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                    No. 22-10265

                                        IV.
          Duffey also challenges his latest resentencing, in which the district
   court applied a two-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(4)(B) for
   the physical restraint of a victim during a robbery. In 2008, Duffey and his
   cohorts robbed a series of banks throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth
   Metroplex. During these robberies, each bank’s manager “was held at
   gunpoint and moved to the vault and told to open the vault.” Because of this,
   the district court applied the enhancement to Duffey’s sentence for the
   physical restraint of the branch managers.
                                        A.
          Before we address the merits of Duffey’s argument, we must first
   ensure that we have appellate jurisdiction over this issue. United States v.
   Hanner, 32 F.4th 430, 434 (5th Cir. 2022) (quoting Castaneda v. Falcon, 166
   F.3d 799, 801 (5th Cir. 1999) (“We must always be sure of our appellate
   jurisdiction and, if there is doubt, we must address it, sua sponte if
   necessary.”)). Citing Hanner, the Government suggests we lack jurisdiction
   because “Duffey’s successive Section 2255 motion . . . w[as] limited to . . .
   Duffey’s Section 924(c) convictions premised on conspiracy to commit bank
   robbery[.]”   This is so, the Government proposes, because Duffey’s
   physical-restraint enhancement argument falls outside the scope of our
   underlying 2021 grant of leave to file the § 2255 motion at issue here.
          In Hanner, the defendant challenged whether his manslaughter
   conviction—entirely separate from those encompassed in the grant of his
   application to file a successive habeas application—qualified as an Armed
   Career Criminal Act predicate after a change in the law. Id. Because
   “Hanner neither sought nor obtained permission to file a successive § 2255
   motion raising [that] claim[,]” the district court lacked jurisdiction to

                                         11
Case: 22-10265     Document: 00517054296            Page: 12   Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                     No. 22-10265

   consider the issue, and Hanner’s appeal was dismissed to the extent that
   issue was raised. Id.
          Duffey’s challenge to the two-level Guidelines enhancement diverges
   substantially from Hanner. His motion to file a successive habeas application
   was cabined to whether “he was convicted and sentenced under § 924(c)(1)
   based on a predicate offense that is not a ‘crime of violence.’” But the
   district court eventually vacated Duffey’s conspiracy-based § 924(c)
   convictions and sentences, leading to vacatur of his other sentences as well.
   Therefore, Duffey does not raise a separate conviction, as in Hanner.
   Instead, he questions imposition of the physical-restraint enhancement to his
   new sentences growing out of his latest habeas petition. We have previously
   rejected, albeit in a different procedural posture, a jurisdictional challenge to
   a district court’s consideration of sentencing enhancements on resentencing
   after a successful § 2255 challenge to a § 924(c) conviction. See United States
   v. Benbrook, 119 F.3d 338, 339–40 (5th Cir. 1997); see also United States v.
   Robinson, 769 F. App’x 140, 141 (5th Cir. 2019) (reviewing a challenge to
   sentencing enhancement applied at resentencing following a successful
   successive § 2255 motion). The same result obtains here, and we have
   jurisdiction to consider Duffey’s claim.
                                         B.
          Turning to the merits, we agree with the Government that the district
   court properly applied the physical-restraint enhancement.              Section
   2B3.1(b)(4)(B) imposes a two-level enhancement “if any person was
   physically restrained to facilitate commission of the offense or to facilitate
   escape.” The Guideline commentary defines “physically restrained” as
   “the forcible restraint of the victim such as by being tied, bound, or locked
   up.” Garcia, 857 F.3d at 712 (quoting U.S.S.G. §§ 1B1.1 cmt. n.1(K), 2B3.1
   cmt. n.1). “By the use of the words ‘such as,’ it is apparent that ‘being tied,

                                          12
Case: 22-10265       Document: 00517054296          Page: 13    Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                    No. 22-10265

   bound, [and] locked up’ are listed by way of example rather than limitation.”
   Id. (citation omitted). Thus, “it is possible for a district court to conclude
   that a defendant physically restrained his victims without evidence that he
   actually tied, bound, or locked them up.” Id. (citation omitted).
          Duffey relies primarily on Garcia to support his position. There,
   during an armed robbery, a defendant held a gun to an employee’s head and
   demanded that he get down on the floor. Id. at 710. Based on this conduct,
   the    district    court   approved        the   two-level    physical-restraint
   enhancement. On appeal, however, we held that though there was “little
   doubt that at least one of the employees felt restrained[,]” the robbery
   victims “were not subjected to the type of physical restraint that victims
   experience when they are tied, bound, or locked up.” Id. at 713; see also
   U.S.S.G. §§ 1B1.1 cmt. N.1(K), 2B3.1 cmt. N.1. We reasoned that because
   the situation in Garcia was no different than “what would normally occur
   during an armed robbery[,]” the physical-restraint enhancement did not
   apply. Id. at 713–14.
          Duffey contends that Garcia encapsulates his situation, so the
   enhancement should not apply in his case, either.               But Garcia is
   distinguishable. In Garcia, we noted that courts had previously found the
   physical-restraint enhancement appropriate “where defendants force their
   victims to move into confined spaces at gunpoint and instruct the victims not
   to leave.” Id. at 712 (collecting cases). The panel stressed that Garcia was
   not such a case because “the defendants allowed the employees to remain
   where they were and never forced them to move to a confined space.” Id.
   Duffey’s case is more akin to United States v. Frank, 223 F. App’x 412 (5th
   Cir. 2007). There, we found the physical-restraint enhancement applicable
   because the defendants “escorted a security guard and several casino
   employees to the casino manager’s office at gunpoint and instructed them
   not to leave.” Frank, 223 F. App’x at 413.

                                         13
Case: 22-10265     Document: 00517054296            Page: 14   Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                     No. 22-10265

          As in Frank, in the string of bank robberies in which Duffey was
   involved, Duffey and his partners in crime did more than “simply stand[]
   near a door, hold[] a firearm, and instruct[] a victim to get on the ground[.]”
   Garcia, 857 F.3d at 713. The district court’s findings, adopted from Duffey’s
   PSR, show that in each robbery, the banks’ managers “w[ere] held at
   gunpoint and moved to the vault and told to open the vault.” At Duffey’s
   March 2022 resentencing hearing, the district court noted that Duffey and
   his cohorts “robbed . . . bank[s] in a takeover fashion[,]” and, in at least one
   of these robberies, pointed a gun at a bank manager’s head and forced the
   manager to the vault area to open it, such that there were “more than enough
   facts to support restraint.” The district court’s findings are plausible in light
   of the record as a whole. United States v. Rodriguez, 630 F.3d 377, 380 (5th
   Cir. 2011) (citations omitted). The district court therefore did not clearly err,
   and it follows that the court did not abuse its discretion in applying the
   § 2B3.1(b)(4)(B) enhancement in Duffey’s 2022 resentencing.
                                         V.
          We turn finally to whether the district court erred in determining that
   it did not have jurisdiction to vacate Hewitt’s remaining § 924(c)
   convictions. We affirm the district court on this point as well.
          Before his 2022 resentencing, Hewitt moved to dismiss his
   convictions predicated on substantive bank robbery. Hewitt argued that
   because his initial convictions based on § 924(c) were vacated as part of his
   successful § 2255 application, his subsequent convictions must also be
   dismissed given that they were premised on previously vacated counts. The
   district court denied Hewitt’s motion for lack of jurisdiction, reasoning that
   Hewitt was required to seek leave in this court to file a new § 2255 application
   raising this claim. On appeal, Hewitt argues that another § 2255 application
   is unnecessary. We disagree.

                                          14
Case: 22-10265     Document: 00517054296             Page: 15   Date Filed: 02/02/2024

                                      No. 22-10265

          When determining whether the district court has jurisdiction to
   decide the merits of a successive § 2255 application, we require that the
   defendant pass two “gates.” Wiese, 896 F.3d at 723. At the first gate, the
   defendant must make a “prima facie showing” in this court that his claims
   result from either “(1) a new rule of constitutional law, made retroactive to
   cases on collateral review by the Supreme Court, that was previously
   unavailable, or (2) newly discovered, clear and convincing evidence that but
   for the error no reasonable fact finder would have found the defendant
   guilty.” Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted). At the second gate, the
   defendant must “actually prove at the district court level that the relief he
   seeks relies either on a new, retroactive rule of constitutional law or on new
   evidence.” Id. Hewitt passed through neither gate on the point he now seeks
   to raise.
          We granted Hewitt’s motion to file a successive § 2255 application
   regarding whether “his 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) convictions that were predicated
   on his convictions for conspiracy to commit bank robbery should be vacated.”
   Several of Hewitt’s convictions were predicated on conspiracy and were in
   fact vacated. But his remaining five § 924(c) convictions were based on the
   substantive crime of bank robbery. These remaining § 924(c) convictions fall
   outside of our authorization for Hewitt’s instant § 2255 motion. Thus, the
   district court held—correctly—that it lacked jurisdiction to reach those
   convictions. See Hanner, 32 F.4th at 434–35.
                                  *        *         *
          Based on the foregoing, as to all issues presented, the district court is
                                                                   AFFIRMED.

                                           15