United States v. Foster

Foster planned, with Hill and Anderson, to rob a credit union. Foster supplied the guns, drove the others to the location, and waited nearby while they entered. Hill directed a teller to empty the cash drawers and threatened to shoot her if she pressed any alarms. Anderson held another employee at gunpoint and ordered him to empty the vault. Anderson stated: “Nobody move for ten minutes. I got a bomb and I’ll blow this place up.” They took approximately $250,000 and met Foster to split the proceeds. Foster pocketed around $100,000. Foster was convicted of armed robbery, 18 U.S.C. 2113(a), (d); using a firearm during a crime of violence, section 924(c)(1)(A)(i); and possessing a firearm as a felon, section 922(g) and was sentenced to 284 months’ imprisonment. Foster later successfully moved to vacate his sentence, in light of the Supreme Court’s Johnson (2015) decision. His prior conviction for burglary no longer qualified as a predicate offense under the Armed Career Criminal Act. Applying a two‐level enhancement under U.S.S.G. 2B3.1(b)(2)(F) based on Hill’s threat to shoot and Anderson’s threat to detonate a bomb, his guidelines range was 97-121 months. Without that enhancement, the range was 78-97 months. The court imposed concurrent sentences of 121 months for the robbery and felon‐in‐possession convictions plus a 60‐month mandatory consecutive term for the 924(c) conviction. The Seventh Circuit vacated. Application Note 4 to U.S.S.G. 2K2.4 prohibits any death‐threat enhancement where a defendant also received a sentence for a firearms offense under 18 U.S.C. 924(c). View "United States v. Foster" on Justia Law