U.S. v. Nebinger

Defendant was entitled to new sentencing hearing on charge of felon in possession of firearm, where Probation Office determined that he qualified as armed career criminal (ACCA) that enhanced his sentencing treatment, based, in part, on his prior Illinois conviction on residential burglary charge. While Court of Appeals, in defendant’s direct appeal, initially held that Illinois residential burglary conviction qualified as predicate offense for purposes of ACCA, Illinois Supreme Court subsequently found that, because of limited-authority doctrine, Illinois residential burglary statute covered more conduct than federal definition of general burglary, and thus did not qualify as predicate felony for purpose of ACCA. Also, Dist. Ct. did not commit plain error in accepting defendant’s guilty plea to instant firearms charge, even though indictment said nothing about defendant’s knowledge of his felon status, as required under Rehaif, 139 S.Ct. 2191. Defendant failed to establish any prejudice arising out of any Rehaif error, where: (1) defendant, with six prior felony convictions that had sentences of four to five years each, could not have credibly asserted that he was unaware of his felon status; and (2) as such, there was no reasonable probability that he would have gone to trial if he had known government needed to prove his knowledge of his felon status.