United States v. Martinez
Opinion of the Court
OPINION OF THE COURT
In November and December 2000, Appellant Irvin Martinez attempted or committed seven armed robberies. In July 2002, Martinez pled guilty to a two-count Information. Count One charged Martinez with armed robbery (of a Gulf Gas station on December 9), 18 U.S.C. § 1951, and Count Two charged him with discharging a firearm during a robbery (of a Sunoco Gas station on November 15), 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). In January 2003, the District Court sentenced Martinez to 130 months on Count One and 120 months on Count Two, to be served consecutively pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“USSG”) § 5G1.2(a). The 130-month sentence was calculated by taking into account all seven attempted/committed robberies, and specifically took into account Martinez’s use of a firearm in every robbery except the November 15 Sunoco robbery. No “firearm discharge” enhancement was applied to the November 15 robbery because the firearm used in that robbery was the predicate for the independent charge stated in Count Two, and further enhancement would have constituted impermissible double counting.
Martinez premises his double-counting argument on the Application Notes to the applicable Sentencing Guideline for Count Two. Specifically, § 2K2.4, App. Note 4,
Martinez is similarly mistaken in his assertion that his enhancements for firearm use and inflicting serious bodily injury are impermissibly duplicative. As the Seventh Circuit has recognized in United States v. Ledford, 218 F.3d 684, 691 (7th Cir. 2000), inflicting injury and using a firearm are completely independent features of a criminal act: one could inflict injury upon somebody without using a firearm (or any weapon at all), and one could use a firearm without inflicting bodily injury. The fact that Martinez used his firearm to inflict the bodily injury in this case does not render the separate enhancements a collective act of “double counting.” Accordingly, we affirm the District Court’s judgment.
. Martinez cites to App. Note 2, which was the relevant application note in an older, now outdated version of the Guidelines. The substance of the old App. Note 2, however, has been preserved in the currently existing App. Note 4.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Irvin J. MARTINEZ
- Status
- Published