US v. Ellis: Ellis, a previously convicted felon, had a “tumultuous” relationship with his “former fiancé,” who had unsuccessfully tried to extricate Ellis from the life of her and her son, Gross. As Gross left his mother’s South Carolina apartment to go get his car, Ellis confronted him at the bottom of a stairwell. After a brief, and escalating, conversation, Ellis “pulled out a gun and shot Gross once in the abdomen” from about ten feet away. Ellis said it was an accident. After his guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm, the district court applied a Guideline cross reference for attempted murder and sentenced Ellis to 97 months, the top of the resulting Guideline range.
On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Ellis’ sentence. First, the court concluded that Ellis could not have raised a defense of intoxication for the cross reference. It could apply if Ellis had committed either federal or state attempted murder and in South Carolina and South Carolina only allowed intoxication as a defense if it was the result from a mental condition (which Ellis never asserted). Second, the court could not conclude that the district court clearly erred in crediting the testimony of Gross about the event, over Ellis’ “self-serving” statements, that the shooting was intentional.
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