Background
Jddarrian Irons pleaded guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon after officers found a handgun in a fanny pack during a traffic stop. The district court sentenced him to forty-six months in prison and three years of supervised release, applying a four-level enhancement for possessing the firearm in connection with a concealed-carry felony. The court also ordered Irons to obtain his GED and submit to computer searches as conditions of release.
The court’s reasoning
The court affirmed the base offense level calculation, finding that attempted carjacking qualifies as a crime of violence under the Sentencing Guidelines. It upheld the four-level enhancement, ruling that the concealed-carry violation was a distinct offense and that the firearm facilitated that offense by being an essential element. However, the court vacated the GED and computer search conditions because the district court failed to pronounce them at the sentencing hearing, violating the requirement that discretionary conditions be stated orally.
The dissent
The enhancement ends up punishing the same conduct when the gun was an essential element of the predicate offense itself, resulting in a circular scheme.
ABUDU
What it means going forward
The defendant’s prison term remains in effect, but the case is sent back to the district court for resentencing to address the invalid supervised release conditions. The district court may reconsider the GED and computer search requirements after providing the defendant an opportunity to be heard.
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