United States of America v. Elliott Maurice Browning

Greensboro, North Carolina criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with possession with intent to distribute a detectable amount of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C); possessing a firearm in furtherance of that drug trafficking offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i); and being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(e).



Here, Browning's presentence report—which was uncontested in terms of the facts relevant to the ACCA designation—establishes that the qualifying ACCA predicate crimes occurred anywhere between four weeks and seven years apart, and had no apparent connection with one another. See Wooden v. United States, 595 U.S. 360, 366, 369-70 (2022) ("Offenses committed close in time, in an uninterrupted course of conduct, will often count as part of one occasion; not so offenses separated by substantial gaps in time or significant intervening events.”).

The district court found at sentencing that Browning qualified as an armed

career criminal, pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). The district court imposed an aggregate 360-month sentence, the lowest sentence available under Browning’s advisory Sentencing Guidelines range of 360 months to life imprisonment. Browning’s sole argument on appeal is that a fact underlying his ACCA designation—namely, that he committed the three predicate crimes on “different occasions”—should have been determined by the jury, not the district court.



Affirmed