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00-2230 U.S. v. Taylor

By: dmc-admin//December 10, 2001//

00-2230 U.S. v. Taylor

By: dmc-admin//December 10, 2001//

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“In our case, the shooting was not related to the escape. It would have been related if, for instance, Taylor shot at an officer who was trying to catch him. Nor was the shooting part of an attempt to escape detection: Taylor was not trying to silence someone who was planning to inform authorities of his whereabouts. As far as we can tell, Taylor shot at a man who had in some way injured his girl friend. The shooting was not related to any attempt to avoid detection for the escape. In fact, as Taylor points out, if anything, by the shooting Taylor called attention to himself, and he was, in fact, quickly apprehended after he pulled the trigger.

“Another problem with the sentence calculation is that even were we to find that the shooting was relevant conduct to the escape, it would be far too long a stretch to connect it to the firearms charge. As we have said, in Taylor’s case the offense carrying the higher offense level is the firearms charge. It is the guideline for this offense which includes the cross-reference which leads to the attempted murder guideline. Even if the government could establish that the shooting was relevant conduct to the escape, nothing would be gained because the guideline for escape does not include a cross-reference which would allow sentencing on the basis of attempted murder.

Naturally, then, it is the firearms charge which the government wants to connect to the shooting. But the hard fact is that the government can’t get there from here. There is no principled way to bridge the gap between the firearms charge and the shooting.”

Vacated and remanded.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Lozano, J., Evans, J.

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