Defendant Did Not “Use Fire” During Domestic Violence Case By Attempting to Burn Dead Victim’s Body

US v. Florentine: Florentine kidnapped his wife, taking her from North Carolina to South Carolina before killing her. After she was dead, Florentine buried her body in a “makeshift grave” and set it on fire. In addition to being charged with interstate domestic violence resulting in death, use of a firearm, and obstruction of justice, Florentine was charged with use of fire to commit a felony (domestic violence). He unsuccessfully moved to dismiss that count, arguing that the domestic violence offense was complete prior to his use of fire. Florentine pleaded guilty to all four counts and was sentenced to a total of 360 months in prison – 240 months to be served concurrently on the first three counts, plus a consecutive 120-month sentence on the use of fire charge (the mandatory minimum).

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit reversed the district court’s denial of Florentine’s motion to dismiss, but ultimately concluded that resentencing was not required. The court noted that “the critical statutory issue in this appeal is determining when the commission of the predicate felony, interstate domestic violence . . . came to an end.” It rejected the Government’s argument that it was a continuing offense that extended to attempts to cover up the offense, concluding that the plain language of the statute shows that the offense ends when the victim of the domestic violence is dead. That is because the language of the statute is involves causing “a spouse [or partner] . . . to travel in interstate commerce” and “once a person has died, they are no longer anyone’s ‘spouse’ or ‘partner.’” As a result, Florentine’s conviction on that count had to be vacated. However, resentencing was not required, as the district court made clear at sentencing that if the use of fire count had been dismissed it would have imposed the same sentence (even though it would be an upward variance).