Mario Delaine was convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm after he discharged a weapon at a motel in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The government charged him under the Armed Career Criminal Act, seeking a fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence based on three prior convictions: a 2012 Florida aggravated assault, a 2009 Florida felony battery, and a 2019 Ohio domestic violence offense. The district court applied the enhancement, sentencing Delaine to 188 months. Delaine appealed, arguing that none of his prior convictions met the federal definition of a violent felony because they either lacked the required intent or did not involve the specific type of force required by the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Armed Career Criminal Act.
The Sixth Circuit applied the categorical approach to determine if Delaine's prior convictions qualified as violent felonies under 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(B)(i). The court first addressed Florida aggravated assault. Delaine argued that prior to a 2022 Florida Supreme Court decision, lower courts had allowed convictions for reckless threats. The Sixth Circuit rejected this, explaining that while statutory amendments apply prospectively, judicial interpretations of existing law apply retroactively because they clarify what the law always meant. The court found that even before the 2022 clarification, Florida law consistently required an intentional threat, meaning the offense always satisfied the state-of-mind requirement of the ACCA. Next, the court analyzed Florida felony battery, which requires intentionally touching another person and causing great bodily harm. Delaine argued that the statute did not require an intent to cause injury, only an intent to touch. The court held that the ACCA's state-of-mind requirement applies to the use of force, not the resulting injury. Since the statute required intentional force, it qualified as a violent felony regardless of whether the defendant intended the specific harm. Finally, the court addressed the Ohio domestic violence conviction. Delaine argued that the statute's inclusion of 'attempted' harm meant it did not always involve the use of force. The court distinguished this from attempted robbery, noting that an attempted Ohio domestic violence offense still requires an attempt to use force that causes injury. The court affirmed that the offense always involves force capable of causing physical pain or injury, satisfying the conduct element of the elements clause.
Delaine's fifteen-year mandatory minimum sentence stands, and he remains subject to the enhanced statutory sentencing range. The decision reinforces the Sixth Circuit's precedent that Ohio domestic violence convictions are violent felonies and clarifies that later judicial clarifications of state law do not retroactively disqualify prior convictions for ACCA purposes. The court left open the question of whether attempted domestic violence is a divisible offense, but held that the completed offense clearly qualifies.
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