Sentencing

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Wallace B. Carson

Case No.: 16-2694

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and RIPPLE and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing

Wallace Carson robbed a convenience store by pulling a gun on the cashier. The police caught him in short order, and he pleaded guilty to Hobbs Act robbery and other charges. The district court sentenced Carson as an armed career criminal, classifying as violent felonies prior convictions for robbery and armed robbery. Carson now appeals, arguing that under Johnson v. United States, 559 U.S. 133 (2010), none of those crimes is a violent felony. Because the appeal waiver in Carson’s plea agreement precludes this argument, we dismiss the appeal. Carson robbed a Walgreens store in 2015. He waited in line until the cashier opened the register to make change for the woman in front of him. He pulled a loaded, semiautomatic pistol out of his pants and held it in his right hand while reaching across the counter and grabbing cash from the register. Carson fled by bicycle, but witnesses told police his direction of travel and he was quickly caught. Carson was charged with Hobbs Act robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a); brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, id. § 924(c); and possessing a firearm as a felon, id. § 922(g)(1). Carson pleaded guilty to all charges and waived his right to appeal with limited exceptions in exchange for the government’s agreement to recommend a 3-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility and a prison sentence of 272 months. That sentence represented the low end of the range calculated by the parties based on a shared assumption that Carson would be sentenced as an armed career criminal. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e); U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4.

Dismissed

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