NC B&E Is ACCA Violent Felony

US v. Dodge: Dodge pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. He argued that his prior conviction North Carolina for breaking and entering were not Armed Career Criminal predicates, arguing that because its definition of “building” includes any structure designed to house “property” (among other things) it was broader than the generic definition of burglary. Applying prior Fourth Circuit precedent, the district court disagreed and sentenced Dodge under ACCA, although it did so pursuant to a Government motion for a departure and ultimately imposed a sentence of 88 months.

The Fourth Circuit affirmed Dodge’s sentence. The court noted that in its 2014 Mungro decision it concluded that NC breaking and entering, as interpreted by the NC Supreme Court, fit the generic definition of burglary, but conceded that “we did not specifically consider the relative scopes of the ‘building’ elements.” In addition to that caveat, Dodge argued that the Supreme Court’s decisions in Mathis and Stitt reiterate that the NC statute is too broad to be an ACCA predicate. The court ultimately concluded that Mungro still controlled for two reasons. First, it “held unequivocally” that NC breaking and entering “sweeps no more broadly than the generic elements of burglary,” even if the court did not directly address the “building” definition. Second, neither of the intervening Supreme Court decisions is contrary to Mungro’s holding.