Criminal Practice – Sentencing – Prior Conviction – Crime of Violence – W.Va. Aggravated Robbery

United States v. Salmons (Lawyers Weekly No. 001-184-17, 10 pp.) (J. Harvie Wilkinson III, J.) No. 16-4316; Oct. 12, 2017; USDC at Charleston, W.Va. (Thomas Johnston, C.J.) 4th Cir.

Holding: At the time of defendant’s West Virginia conviction for aggravated robbery, that crime was defined as the successful or attempted commission of a “robbery by partial strangulation or suffocation, or by striking or beating, or by other violence to the person, or by the threat or presenting of firearms, or other deadly weapon or instrumentality whatsoever.” This maps onto the “crime of violence” definition in the force clause of the United States Sentencing Guidelines as a taking by physical force or by the threat or attempt of physical force.

The district did not err when it increased defendant’s base offense level from 14 to 20 as a result of his aggravated robbery conviction.