United States v. Jacobi Shelton Washington

MATHIS, Circuit Judge. Jacobi Washington pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine with intent to distribute it and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking offense. The district court sentenced Washington to 195 months’ imprisonment after determining that he was a career offender under the Sentencing Guidelines. Washington argues that the district court erred by enhancing his sentence under the career-offender guideline. We disagree, and so we affirm.

A defendant qualifies as a career offender if the government can show three things. First, the defendant must have been at least eighteen years old when he “committed the instant offense of conviction.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a). Second, the offense of conviction must be a “felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” Id. And three, the defendant must have “at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” Id.

Washington disputes only the third requirement. Washington has a 2012 federal drug conviction and a 2018 conviction for delivery or manufacture of cocaine under Michigan law. He argues that his Michigan drug conviction is not a controlled substance offense under the Guidelines because, at the time of that conviction, Michigan’s definition of cocaine criminalized more conduct than the federal-law cocaine definition.

Our precedent forecloses Washington’s argument. A “controlled substance offense” under the Guidelines includes “an offense under federal or state law . . . that prohibits the manufacture, import, export, distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance.” Id. § 4B1.2(b) (2018) (emphasis added). We have construed this provision to mean that “state-law controlled substance offenses need not define controlled substances according to the Controlled Substances Act to count under § 4B1.2(b).” United States v. Jones, 81 F.4th 591, 598 (6th Cir. 2023). Thus, Washington’s Michigan drug conviction counts as a controlled substance offense. With two prior convictions for controlled substance offenses, the district court properly applied the career-offender guideline.

To his credit, Washington acknowledges that Jones binds us. See Salmi v. Sec’y of Health & Hum. Servs., 774 F.2d 685, 689 (6th Cir. 1985).

We AFFIRM the district court’s judgment.