Sentencing Guidelines

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Napoleon Foster

Case No.: 17-3236

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and SCUDDER and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines

For his part in the armed robbery of a credit union, Napoleon Foster was convicted of robbing a financial institution, using a firearm during the robbery, and possessing a firearm as a felon. The district court sentenced Foster as an armed career criminal but later vacated the sentence because one of his prior convictions no longer qualified as a predicate offense. On appeal from resentencing, Foster argues that the district court erred in its determination of the advisory guidelines range applicable to the robbery offense by imposing an enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(2)(F) for his coconspirator’s threat to detonate a bomb during the robbery. Relying on the language used by the Sentencing Commission in Application Note 4 to U.S.S.G. § 2K2.4, he contends that the sentence he received under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) accounts for the bomb threat and thus the threat cannot also enhance the advisory range for the robbery conviction. We agree and therefore vacate Foster’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

Vacated and Remanded

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