John Joseph Douglas v. United States of America

United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
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No. 17-3422
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John Joseph Douglas
lllllllllllllllllllllPetitioner - Appellant
v.
United States of America
lllllllllllllllllllllRespondent - Appellee
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis
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Submitted: March 6, 2019
Filed: March 11, 2019
[Unpublished]
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Before BENTON, WOLLMAN, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
John Douglas was found guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and
he was sentenced to 240 months in prison. His sentence was enhanced under the
Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) (felon in possession who has three
prior convictions for “violent felony” shall be imprisoned not less than 15 years).

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Douglas later filed a 28 U.S.C. § 2255 motion challenging his sentence as an armed
career criminal. The motion was denied, based in part on the district court’s1
conclusion that Douglas’s two prior Minnesota convictions for first-degree aggravated
robbery qualified as “violent felon[ies]” for purposes of section 924(e). The district
court then granted Douglas a certificate of appealability regarding that conclusion, and
he appeals.
After careful de novo review, we conclude that Douglas’s prior convictions
were properly classified as “violent felon[ies].” See United States v. Libby, 880 F.3d
1011, 1013, 1016 (8th Cir. 2018) (by its terms, first-degree aggravated robbery under
Minnesota law minimally requires that defendant communicate threat of violent force;
as such, elements of offense categorically present “violent felony”); see also United
States v. Salean, 583 F.3d 1059, 1060 n.2 (8th Cir. 2009) (for purposes of determining
whether prior conviction qualified as “violent felony,” it was irrelevant that prior
conviction was premised on aiding-and-abetting theory of liability). Accordingly, we
affirm. See 8th Cir. R. 47B.
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1The Honorable Patrick J. Schiltz, United States District Judge for the District
of Minnesota.
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