United States of America v. Nathaniel Durham and Phillip Barnes

Louisville, Kentucky, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with felony possession of firearms.



The district court determined Nathaniel Durham and Phillip Barnes were subject to the Armed Career Criminal Act's mandatory minimum term of imprisonment because each had at least three prior qualifying convictions for offenses that occurred on different occasions. The Supreme Court's intervening decision in Erlinger v. United States, however, made clear that a jury, not a judge, must determine whether crimes occurred on different occasions. 602 U.S. 821 (2024). In this appeal, we must determine whether the district court's failure to submit the different-occasions question

to a jury was harmless.

AFFIRM the district court’s judgment as to Durham, VACATE Barnes’s sentence, and

REMAND his case for further proceedings.