United States v. Brake
Opinion
Defendant Adam Brake pleaded guilty to one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of
I. Factual Background and Prior Proceedings
We briefly summarize the essential facts of the case. "Because this appeal follows a guilty plea, we draw the relevant facts from the plea agreement, the change-of-plea colloquy, the undisputed portions of the presentence investigation report ('PSR'), and the transcript of the disposition hearing."
United States
v.
O'Brien
,
In May 2016, in response to a reported burglary, officers from the Berwick (Maine) Police Department stopped a car matching a bulletin for a separate burglary. Brake was inside the car and consented to a search of the vehicle. 1 Police discovered a crowbar and multiple laptop computers in the trunk of the car. At that point, Brake confessed to multiple burglaries in the area.
In a subsequent interview following Miranda warnings, Brake reaffirmed his earlier confession and informed police that some of the stolen property remained stashed at a Berwick residence. After a search of the premises (presumably conducted pursuant to a search warrant), police recovered numerous items from multiple burglaries, including currency, electronics, jewelry, and (most notably for purposes of this appeal) nine firearms. On June 5, 2017, Brake pleaded guilty to an information charging possession of a firearm by a felon, and separately admitted to four violations of the terms of his supervised release on an earlier conviction.
Using the 2016 Sentencing Guidelines, the United States Probation Office ("Probation") issued its first PSR for the felon
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in possession count in July 2017. Based on Brake's criminal history, the PSR calculated a base offense level of 20,
see
U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A), and applied enhancements for specific offense characteristics: (a) a four-level increase based on the number of firearms involved in the offense,
Brake objected to both PSRs on a number of grounds, none of which are claimed to be relevant here. 3 The district court overruled all of Brake's objections to the guidelines calculation. On September 25, 2017, the court sentenced Brake to a term of 84 months' incarceration for possession of a firearm by a felon and a concurrent term of 24 months' incarceration for violating the terms of his supervised release. 4 Brake timely appealed.
II. Discussion
Brake's sole argument in this appeal is that the district court erred in imposing both the two-level enhancement under Section 2K2.1(b)(4)(A) and the four-level enhancement under Section 2K2.1(b)(6)(B). The government both contests this argument and counters that, in any event, Brake's claim has been waived because he did not object to the Section 2K2.1(b)(4)(A) stolen gun enhancement when he was before the district court. In response, Brake argues that this argument may have been forfeited, but was not waived because the specific issue of double counting was never addressed below.
The distinction between waiver and forfeiture may be material to the scope of appellate review. Waiver refers to the "intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right."
United States
v.
Olano
,
We need not determine whether Brake waived his objection, as we conclude that Brake's claim does not rise to the level of plain error. "Where a defendant's claim would fail even if reviewed for plain error, we have often declined to decide whether
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the defendant's failure to raise the issue below constituted waiver or mere forfeiture."
United States
v.
Acevedo-Sueros
,
Brake claims that the district court impermissibly "double counted" in applying enhancements for both possessing a stolen firearm, U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(4)(A), and possessing a firearm "in connection with another felony offense,"
Despite its pejorative nomenclature, "[d]ouble counting in the sentencing context is a phenomenon that is less sinister than the name implies."
United States
v.
Lilly
,
Though a matter of first impression in this circuit, a number of our sister circuits have wrestled with "double counting" challenges to the enhancements raised here. Circuit courts initially split over the separate but related question of whether the enhancement for using or possessing a firearm "in connection with another felony offense" applied to defendants who, like Brake,
5
began a burglary unarmed but stole firearms during the crime. Prior to the 2006 Amendments to the Sentencing Guidelines, at least three circuits had concluded that gun thefts by prohibited persons under those circumstances justified enhancements for both the possession of a stolen firearm and possessing the weapon during the felony burglary.
See
United States
v.
Schaal
,
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United States
v.
Szakacs
,
We view this history, and particularly the Sentencing Commission's resolution of this interpretive dispute, as dispositive of Brake's claim. Even in the best of circumstances, we are hesitant to infer an extratextual prohibition on "double counting" absent a "compelling basis" to do so.
Chiaradio
,
Moreover, we view this result as consistent with the purposes behind the enhancements. Though both enhancements "derive from the same nucleus of operative facts" in this case, namely the burglaries,
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they "nonetheless respond[ ] to discrete concerns."
Fiume
,
III. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM the sentence imposed on the appellant.
The vehicle's owner and two children were also in the car.
The PSR also included a three-point reduction to Brake's offense level based on acceptance of responsibility.
While Brake objected to the second PSR's addition of the four-level enhancement under Section 2K2.1(b)(6)(B), he staked his objection on different grounds than those raised in this appeal. Brake argued that Probation's inclusion of a new enhancement after he submitted objections was retaliatory. However, Brake did not object to the inclusion of the two-level enhancement pursuant to Section 2K2.1(b)(4)(A) and did not make the "double counting" argument he now makes.
Brake appeals both the revocation of his supervised release, No. 17-1978, and the felon in possession conviction, No. 17-1979, in this consolidated appeal. However, he does not raise any claim of error regarding the sentence imposed for the supervised release violations.
While the record and briefs are not entirely clear, we assume for purposes of this appeal that Brake was not armed when he entered any of the burgled residences and only acquired the firearms during the course of the burglaries.
At the time of these decisions, the enhancement for use or possession of a firearm in connection with another felony offense appeared in Section 2K2.1(b)(5). The Sentencing Commission subsequently renumbered that section in 2006, but did not revise the language of the enhancement. See U.S.S.G. app. C amend. 691. The current numbering is used here for the reader's convenience.
This conclusion is reinforced by Section 2K2.1's inclusion of other application notes which limit those enhancements in other ways.
See
U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1 cmt. n.8(A) (impermissible "double counting" to apply Section 2K2.1(b)(4)(A) where base offense level determined by Section 2K2.1(a)(7) and offense based on one of several enumerated statutory sections);
Despite Brake's suggestion that the enhancement for possessing a stolen firearm is based solely on his possession of the weapons during the burglaries, the record indicates that he continued to maintain control over the stolen weapons for some time thereafter. It is thus not obvious that the enhancements are temporally linked to the same period of possession.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Adam BRAKE, Defendant, Appellant.
- Cited By
- 10 cases
- Status
- Published