ACCA Trap for the Unwary

The Armed Career Criminal minimum of 15 years will typically apply if an offender has three prior convictions for violent felonies. This enhancement applies so long as the violent felonies were "committed on occasions different from one another." See 18 U.S.C. 924(e). In an unpublished decision in US v. Stupka, the Tenth Circuit holds that three burglaries committed on apartments under the possession and control of the same people, on the same day, at the same address, and by using a master key suffice for the requisite violent felonies.

The fact that the statute is specifically targeted at career criminals is of no consequence since the burglaries were committed "on occasions different from one another." As the Court noted, "Mr. Stupka could not have simultaneously burglarized all three apartments. In addition, although the apartments were in the same complex ... he had to "break and enter" each apartment separately."

This bizarre decision should cause defense attorney to seriously scrutinize all of the potential predicate offenses before entering a plea. Different counts in the same charging document can give rise, as in Stupka, to multiple predicate offenses even though the convictions appear at first blush to be inextricably intertwined.