United States v. Matthew Hataway
Opinion
Matthew Hataway pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of
I. The Sentencing Issues.
The definitions of "violent felony" in the ACCA and "crime of violence" in the Guidelines both include an offense that "has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another."
If the state statute is "divisible," meaning that it "list[s] elements in the alternative, and thereby defines multiple crimes," we apply a modified categorical approach that examines a limited universe of judicial records "to determine what crime, with what elements, a defendant was convicted of."
Mathis v. United States
, --- U.S. ----,
A. The Arkansas Aggravated Assault Conviction.
The Presentence Investigation Report recommended that Hataway be sentenced as an armed career criminal based on three prior violent felony convictions, including a 2014 conviction for aggravated assault in violation of
(a) A person commits aggravated assault if, under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to the value of human life, he or she purposely:
(1) Engages in conduct that creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person;
(2) Displays a firearm in such a manner that creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person; or
(3) Impedes or prevents the respiration of another person or the circulation of another person's blood by applying pressure on the throat or neck or by blocking the nose or mouth of the other person.
In
United States v. Jordan
,
Hataway timely objected to the PSR's violent felony recommendations, and the parties filed pre-sentencing memoranda on the issues. The government submitted the Arkansas state court charging document, a July 28, 2014 Information reciting that the Prosecuting Attorney for Saline County -
charges Matthew Trent Hataway with the crime(s) of AGGRAVATED ASSAULT as follows:
COUNT 1: AGGRAVATED ASSAULT ARK. CODE ANN. § 5-13-204. The said defendant in SALINE COUNTY, did unlawfully and feloniously on or about March 28, 2014 point a firearm at [the victim] and threaten him with it.
The Information then quoted the entire statute, including subsections (b) and (c), and alleged: "Thereby committing the offense of AGGRAVATED ASSAULT, said offense being a CLASS D FELONY ...." The government asserted that the Information "most closely tracks" subsection (a)(2) because it pleads the use of a firearm, and argued that subsection (a)(2), unlike subsection (a)(1) at issue in Jordan , satisfies the ACCA force clause.
In a responsive memorandum, Hataway stated: "Based upon surplus language that is contained in the information ... it appears that Mr. Hataway was prosecuted under ... section (a)(2)" of the Arkansas aggravated assault statute. Hataway then argued that subsection (a)(2) does not satisfy the force clause because it "only requires the government to prove that a defendant display a firearm in such a manner that creates a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person," not the use or threatened use of violent force.
The district court ruled on ACCA issues in an Order issued the day before sentencing. After noting that § 5-13-204(a) is a divisible statute, the court ruled:
The criminal information states in pertinent part that Mr. Hataway "did unlawfully and feloniously on or about March 28, 2014 point a firearm at [victim] and threaten him with it." The Court concludes, applying the modified categorical approach, that Mr. Hataway was convicted of felony aggravated assault under § 5-13-204(a)(2).
After reviewing prior decisions of this court applying the force clause, and relevant Arkansas precedents, the court concluded that a conviction under § 5-13-204(a)(2) "has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another." At sentencing, counsel for Hataway preserved his ACCA objections but did not argue the issue further.
1.
On appeal, Hataway argues for the first time that it is "impossible to tell just by the judicial records that Mr. Hataway was convicted under subsection (a)(2)" because the Information quoted the entire statute, on the facts alleged he could have been charged under (a)(1) or (a)(2), and the sentencing order did not specify which subsection he was convicted under. Therefore, the district court erred, Hataway argues, because the judicial records lacked the certainty we required in
United States v. Horse Looking
,
When an over-inclusive but divisible statute is at issue, if the charging document narrows the charge to an offense that qualifies as a violent felony under the force clause, and the fact of conviction is not contested, the charging document "is sufficient evidence to support a finding that the defendant was necessarily convicted of the narrower offense."
United States v. Vasquez-Garcia
,
Alleging the defendant violated a specific subsection of an over-inclusive statute is not the only way an indictment or information can narrow the charge to an offense that qualifies as an ACCA violent felony. In
United States v. Vinton
, for example, the information alleged that Vinton violated an over-inclusive Missouri assault statute by committing offense conduct that "precisely track[ed] the language of" the subsection that satisfied the ACCA force
clause.
Applying these controlling authorities, we conclude that the district court did not commit plain error in finding that the specific facts alleged in the Information establish "that Mr. Hataway was convicted of felony aggravated assault under § 5-13-204(a)(2)." The information specifically charged Hataway with "point[ing] a firearm at [the victim] and threaten[ing] him with it." Display of a firearm is an element of the offense in subsection (a)(2) but not the other two subsections.
Horse Looking
, on which Hataway relies, is clearly distinguishable. In that case, the indictment narrowed an over-inclusive assault statute by charging the defendant with violating three of its five subsections.
2.
Hataway further argues, as he did in the district court, that § 5-13-204(a)(2) is not an ACCA violent felony because it only requires the government to prove that he "created a substantial danger of death or serious physical injury to another person." But "displaying an operational weapon before another in an angry or threatening manner qualifies as threatened use of physical force" under the ACCA.
United States v. Pulliam
,
B. The South Carolina Conviction.
Hataway argues that his prior conviction for violating § 16-23-410 of the South Carolina Code was not an ACCA violent felony or a guidelines crime of violence under the force clauses. In
Reyes-Soto v. Lynch
, we held that a conviction
under this statute is a crime of violence under the force clause in
On appeal, Hataway does not try to distinguish
Reyes-Soto
because it applied the § 16(a) force clause. Rather, he argues that
Reyes-Soto
and
King
were "wrongly decided" because they misinterpreted what should be controlling South Carolina state court decisions in two respects -- whether a defendant can be convicted under § 16-23-410 without directing a threat at another person, and whether the statute could be construed to encompass negligent conduct. However, we considered and rejected both these contentions in
Reyes-Soto
,
II. The Supervised Release Issue.
Hataway argues the district court abused its discretion in imposing a special supervised release condition requiring him to abstain from use of alcohol during substance abuse treatment because there was no finding that he suffers from alcoholism, or that use of alcohol contributed to the offense of conviction or would impede efforts to rehabilitate him. It is undisputed that Hataway has a long history of drug abuse. He began abusing methamphetamine at age 18, has multiple prior drug-related arrests and convictions, and reported using methamphetamine daily when interviewed after his arrest for this offense. We have previously held that a district court did not err in imposing an alcohol abstinence condition when the defendant was "drug dependent."
United States v. Forde
,
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
The Honorable Kristine G. Baker, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
We generally interpret the identical ACCA and guidelines force clauses interchangeably.
See
United States v. Brown
,
In
United States v. Pyles
,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee v. Matthew Trent HATAWAY, Defendant - Appellant
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published