Background
Armondo Grays, Jr. was on supervised release following convictions for drug distribution and firearm possession. While on release, he committed first-degree burglary in violation of Iowa law. The district court found Grays committed a crime of violence based on his actual conduct of assaulting a woman in an apartment, revoking his supervision and sentencing him to thirty months in prison. Grays appealed, arguing the court should have used the categorical approach to determine if the burglary was a crime of violence.
The court’s reasoning
The Eighth Circuit explained that for thirty years, it has consistently held that the grade of a supervised release violation depends on the defendant’s actual conduct rather than the elements of the charged offense. The Sentencing Guidelines explicitly state that the grade is based on actual conduct. The court rejected Grays’s argument that the categorical approach applied, noting that Iowa’s first-degree burglary statute can be committed recklessly and thus would not qualify as a crime of violence under that test. The court also clarified that a prior decision did not undermine this precedent. Even assuming an error occurred, the court found it was not plain given the binding precedent and the district court’s statement that it could not find a lesser sentence sufficient.
The grade of a supervised release violation turns on the defendant’s actual conduct, not the elements of his offense.
United States v. Grays, Jr., No. 25-2188 (8th Cir. May 13, 2026)
What it means going forward
This decision reinforces that federal courts must look at the specific facts of a defendant’s behavior when classifying supervised release violations, rather than relying solely on the statutory definition of the underlying crime.
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