United States v. Wade Albright , 672 F. App'x 297 ( 2017 )

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 16-4179
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
WADE ANDREW ALBRIGHT,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
South Carolina, at Columbia. Margaret B. Seymour, Senior District
Judge. (3:15-cr-00088-MBS-1)
Submitted: December 16, 2016 Decided: January 5, 2017
Before WILKINSON, WYNN, and FLOYD, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Kimberly H. Albro, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Columbia,
South Carolina, for Appellant. Beth Drake, Acting United States
Attorney, Stacey D. Haynes, Assistant United States Attorney,
Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Wade Andrew Albright pled guilty, pursuant to a written
agreement, to being a felon in possession of a firearm and
ammunition, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2)
(2012). Based on his three prior South Carolina convictions for
strong arm robbery and his prior South Carolina conviction for
manslaughter, the district court designated Albright an armed
career criminal and sentenced him to an enhanced, within-
Sentencing-Guidelines-range term of 188 months in prison. On
appeal, Albright challenges his armed career criminal status,
asserting that his prior strong arm robbery convictions are not
proper predicates following Johnson v. United States, 135 S. Ct.
2551 (2015). We disagree.
“We review de novo whether a prior conviction qualifies as an
ACCA violent felony.” United States v. Doctor, __ F.3d __, __,
No. 15-4764, 2016 WL 6833343, at *1 (4th Cir. Nov. 21, 2016). In
Doctor, we held that a prior South Carolina conviction for strong
arm robbery properly qualifies as a predicate violent felony under
the force clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), 18 U.S.C.
§ 924(e) (2012). Id. at *2-5. We concluded that “South Carolina
has defined its common law robbery offense, whether committed by
means of violence or intimidation, to necessarily include as an
element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force
against the person of another.” Id. at *5 (internal quotation
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marks omitted). Therefore, because Doctor forecloses Albright’s
strong-arm-robbery argument, we conclude that the district court
properly considered these offenses as ACCA predicates.
Because Albright has the requisite three prior violent felony
convictions to warrant his armed career criminal designation, we
need not consider Albright’s remaining ACCA challenge.
Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment. We dispense
with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are
adequately presented in the materials before this court and
argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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