Background
Jaron Starkey pleaded guilty to a federal drug-trafficking crime and was sentenced to three hundred months in prison. The district court applied a career-offender enhancement under the United States Sentencing Guidelines based on two prior felony drug-distribution convictions from Delaware in two thousand twelve and two thousand nineteen. Starkey appealed, arguing the prior convictions did not qualify as controlled substance offenses because the Delaware statutes included attempted distribution.
The court’s reasoning
The court concluded that Starkey’s argument was precluded by the text of the Delaware statutes. The statutes punished any person who manufactures, delivers, or possesses with intent to manufacture or deliver illegal drugs. Although the statutes defined delivery to include attempted transfers, the court explained that an attempted transfer becomes a completed delivery under these specific definitions. The court noted that this interpretation prevents rendering separate attempt statutes superfluous. The court reviewed prior Fourth Circuit precedent and a Delaware Supreme Court decision, finding that the state law treats attempted transfers as completed deliveries rather than inchoate attempts.
We have repeatedly pointed this out in connection with the interpretation of several statutes similar to the Delaware statutes.
United States v. Starkey, No. 25-4099 (4th Cir. May 22, 2026)
What it means going forward
The ruling confirms that defendants with prior convictions under Delaware drug statutes containing definitions of delivery that include attempted transfers will face career-offender enhancements in federal court.
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