Filed: Jul. 31, 2020
Latest Update: Jul. 31, 2020
Summary: United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit _ No. 19-3495 _ United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Gilberto Arreola Chavez Defendant - Appellant _ Appeal from United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines _ Submitted: June 15, 2020 Filed: July 31, 2020 [Unpublished] _ Before KELLY, ERICKSON, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. _ PER CURIAM. Gilberto Arreola Chavez received a mandatory-minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for possessing a firearm as a fe
Summary: United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit _ No. 19-3495 _ United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Gilberto Arreola Chavez Defendant - Appellant _ Appeal from United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines _ Submitted: June 15, 2020 Filed: July 31, 2020 [Unpublished] _ Before KELLY, ERICKSON, and STRAS, Circuit Judges. _ PER CURIAM. Gilberto Arreola Chavez received a mandatory-minimum sentence of 15 years in prison for possessing a firearm as a fel..
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United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
___________________________
No. 19-3495
___________________________
United States of America
Plaintiff - Appellee
v.
Gilberto Arreola Chavez
Defendant - Appellant
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the Southern District of Iowa - Des Moines
____________
Submitted: June 15, 2020
Filed: July 31, 2020
[Unpublished]
____________
Before KELLY, ERICKSON, and STRAS, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
Gilberto Arreola Chavez received a mandatory-minimum sentence of 15 years
in prison for possessing a firearm as a felon. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1) (fixing a
mandatory-minimum sentence for armed career criminals who illegally possess a
firearm). He had three qualifying offenses, all from Iowa, that led the district court1
to classify him as an armed career criminal: two for possession with intent to deliver
methamphetamine, Iowa Code § 124.401(1), and one for intimidation with a
dangerous weapon
, id. § 708.6. We affirm.
The first two convictions counted because they were “serious drug
offense[s].” 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(2)(A)(ii) (defining “serious drug offense” to include
state offenses “involving . . . possess[ion] with intent to . . . distribute . . . a controlled
substance”). The statute in question, Iowa Code § 124.401(1) (2014), is divisible,
meaning that it includes multiple separate offenses, each based on substance type
and quantity. See United States v. Ford,
888 F.3d 922, 930 (8th Cir. 2018). Both of
Arreola Chavez’s convictions involved possession with the intent to deliver
methamphetamine, which is a “serious drug offense” under the Armed Career
Criminal Act. See
id. None of Arreola Chavez’s arguments to the contrary get him
around Ford. Id.; see Mader v. United States,
654 F.3d 794, 800 (8th Cir. 2011) (en
banc).
Nor is there any merit to the argument that none of his three convictions count
because Iowa’s law on accomplice liability is too broad. We have rejected this
argument before, and we do so again here. See United States v. Boleyn,
929 F.3d
932, 937–38 (8th Cir. 2019) (holding that section 124.401(1) falls within the
definition of a “serious drug offense,” even if the conviction is based on an aiding-
and-abetting theory); see also
id. at 940 (concluding that Iowa’s definition of aiding
and abetting is “substantially equivalent to, not meaningfully broader than,” the
generic and federal definitions).
We accordingly affirm the judgment of the district court.
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1
The Honorable Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger, United States District Judge for
the Southern District of Iowa.
-2-