United States v. Duryea Rogers , 777 F.3d 934 ( 2015 )


Menu:
  •                                In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Seventh Circuit
    No. 14-2053
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Plaintiff-Appellee,
    v.
    DURYEA ROGERS,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    Appeal from the United States District Court for the
    Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division.
    No. 13-CR-00159— Sarah Evans Barker, Judge.
    ARGUED JANUARY 8, 2015 — DECIDED FEBRUARY 4, 2015
    Before BAUER, MANION, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.
    MANION, Circuit Judge. Duryea Rogers pleaded guilty to
    conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, armed bank
    robbery, and brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence
    (in this case, a bank robbery). He challenges the district court’s
    imposition of a two-level enhancement for carjacking under
    U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(5). We affirm.
    2                                                  No. 14-2053
    I. Background
    On the morning of June 26, 2013, Duryea Rogers and Xavier
    Hardy (as well as three other co-conspirators) set out to rob a
    bank. To that end, they drove to the Community Bank in
    Fishers, Indiana, parked in a lot across the street, and waited.
    When the first bank employee arrived at just before 8 a.m.,
    they drew their guns on her and forced her into the bank.
    Under the direction of Rogers, the employee did everything
    that she would normally do: she turned on lights, deactivated
    the alarm, placed her purse on the counter, and unlocked the
    front door. But she did not give the all-clear signal indicating
    to other employees that it was safe to enter the bank.
    Rogers escorted the employee to the vault and ordered her
    to open it but she could not. (To deter robberies, bank vaults
    often cannot be opened by a single employee—but advance
    deterrence relies on criminals knowing this and this group did
    not.) The robbery was a failure: Rogers and Hardy never
    obtained any cash from the bank.
    But they did not leave empty-handed. While Rogers and
    the employee struggled with the vault, Hardy rummaged
    through the employee’s purse, and took her car keys and
    identification. The pair then directed the employee into the
    break room, ordered her to lie on the floor, and zip-tied her
    hands and feet together. Rogers and Hardy fled in the
    employee’s Chevy Equinox, which was parked next to the
    bank.The other co-conspirators fled in a minivan as well as the
    Chevy Tahoe that Rogers and Hardy had driven to the bank
    that morning.
    What the pair did not realize was that FBI agents were
    No. 14-2053                                                    3
    outside the bank waiting for them; indeed, they had been
    watching them the entire morning as another co-conspirator,
    Deandre Armour, had been under surveillance for months for
    suspicion of robbing other banks in Indiana. Various car chases
    ensued. Ultimately, Rogers and Hardy deserted the Equinox in
    a hotel parking lot and fled on foot. Hardy was arrested nearby
    in possession of a .45 caliber pistol. Rogers was found by police
    hiding in the hotel in a closet and underneath a laundry chute.
    Officers also located several items discarded by Rogers,
    including a .40 caliber handgun, two-way radio, and items of
    clothing worn by him during the bank robbery. Finally, the
    other three co-conspirators, including Armour, were also
    arrested without incident.
    On April 28, 2014, Rogers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
    commit bank robbery (
    18 U.S.C. § 371
    ), armed bank robbery
    (
    18 U.S.C. §§ 2113
    (a) and 2113(d)), and knowingly using,
    carrying, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to
    a crime of violence (
    18 U.S.C. § 924
    (c)(1)(A)(ii)). The court
    sentenced Rogers to 60 months’ imprisonment on each of
    Counts One and Two (to be served concurrently), and 84
    months on Count Three (to be served consecutively), followed
    by 5 years of supervised release.
    Rogers’s plea agreement left open the issue of whether he
    should receive the two-level enhancement for carjacking. The
    probation officer recommended application of the enhance-
    ment, while Rogers argued that the behavior was already
    factored into his sentence with the application of a two-level
    enhancement for restraining the victim. Over Rogers’s objec-
    tion, the district court concluded that the two-level enhance-
    ment should apply. Rogers appeals.
    4                                                    No. 14-2053
    II. Analysis
    We employ the usual dual standard, reviewing for clear
    error the district court’s factual findings and de novo its
    application of those facts to the Guidelines. United States v.
    Medina, 
    695 F.3d 702
    , 704 (7th Cir. 2012). When interpreting the
    Guidelines, we begin with the text of the provision and the
    plain meaning of the words in the text. United States v. Hill, 
    645 F.3d 900
    , 907 (7th Cir. 2011). In addition to the actual language
    of the Guidelines, we must also consider the Application Notes
    as they are considered part of the Guidelines and not mere
    commentary on them. United States v. Arnaout, 
    431 F.3d 994
    ,
    1001 (7th Cir. 2005).
    Section 2B3.1(b)(5) of the Guidelines provides for a two-
    level enhancement for robberies involving carjacking, which
    the Application Notes define as “the taking or attempted
    taking of a motor vehicle from the person or presence of
    another by force and violence or by intimidation.” § 2B3.1,
    cmt. n. 1. Although Hardy, rather than Rogers, took the
    employee’s keys, co-conspirator liability under
    § 1.B.1.3(a)(1)(B) is not at issue here; Rogers has not contested
    it and the facts indicate that the theft was a reasonably foresee-
    able part of the overall bank robbery.
    At sentencing, Rogers focused on the “person and pres-
    ence” requirement to argue that the Guideline did not apply to
    “keyjacking” incidents where the keys, rather than the car, are
    taken from the presence of the victim. On appeal, Rogers
    refines his argument, contending that the facts do not support
    a finding of carjacking because the keys were obtained merely
    by rummaging through the employee’s purse, and not through
    No. 14-2053                                                       5
    “force and violence or intimidation” as is required under the
    Guideline. Notably, he argues this even as he concedes that the
    bank robbery involved force or intimidation. The crucial
    distinction, according to Rogers, is not whether the robbery
    involved a measure of violence or intimidation, but whether
    the keys were obtained through the “coerced relinquishment”
    (his term) by the victim.
    The “person and presence” argument has not been accepted
    by any circuit that has examined it and is easily dispatched. In
    holding that there is no distinction—other factors notwith-
    standing—between taking a victim’s car outright and taking a
    victim’s keys as merely the first action in the seizure of her car,
    we join our sister circuits who have examined this question in
    the context of 
    18 U.S.C. § 2119
    . They are uniform in construing
    the term “presence” broadly to include the ability to retain
    control of the vehicle through possession of the keys. See, e.g.,
    United States v. Savarese, 
    385 F.3d 15
    , 20 (1st Cir. 2004); United
    States v. Soler, 
    759 F.3d 226
    , 235 (2d Cir. 2014); United States v.
    Lake, 
    150 F.3d 269
    , 272–73 (3d Cir. 1998); United States v. Davis,
    233 Fed. App’x. 292, 295 (4th Cir. 2007) (per curiam unpub-
    lished); United States v. Edwards, 
    231 F.3d 933
    , 937 (5th Cir.
    2000); United States v. Casteel, 
    663 F.3d 1013
    , 1020–21 (8th Cir.
    2011); United States v. Burns, 
    701 F.2d 840
    , 843 (9th Cir. 1983)
    (per curiam); United States v. Brown, 
    200 F.3d 700
    , 705 (10th Cir.
    1999).
    Only the Sixth Circuit has considered directly the applica-
    tion of a sentencing enhancement under § 2B3.1(b)(5) to similar
    facts. In United States v. Boucha, 
    236 F.3d 768
     (6th Cir. 2001), the
    defendant forced an employee to surrender to him the keys to
    6                                                    No. 14-2053
    her car during a robbery, which he used as his escape vehicle.
    The defendant was convicted of bank robbery and the sentenc-
    ing judge applied the two-level enhancement for carjacking.
    The Sixth Circuit read the federal carjacking statute in light of
    common law robbery principles applicable to the enhancement
    and found the broader interpretation of “person or presence”
    from the statute to conform with the language and purpose of
    the Sentencing Guidelines. 
    Id.
     at 775–76. We agree and hold
    that, for the purpose of § 2B3.1(b)(5), a defendant who takes a
    victim’s keys by force or threat of force, and who later takes the
    car (which is sufficiently proximate for the owner to access it),
    may be sentenced as if he took the victim’s car in the presence
    of the victim by force or threat of force.
    Rogers’s second argument—that the keys were not ob-
    tained by “force and violence or by intimidation”—is equally
    unavailing. To accept this argument, we would have to ignore
    the basic fact of this case, namely that the bank employee was,
    at all relevant times, acting under the orders of armed men.
    The incident began with Rogers and Hardy accosting the
    employee at the back door and drawing their weapons on her.
    It ended with them leading her to the break room and ordering
    her to lie on the floor, where they zip-tied her. In the interim,
    she was in the presence of at least one of the robbers—and his
    weapon—at all relevant times. These facts more than suffice to
    establish that the keys were obtained through “force and
    violence or by intimidation.”
    No. 14-2053                                                 7
    III. Conclusion
    The district court’s imposition of a two-level enhancement
    to Rogers’s base offense level for bank robbery under the
    carjacking enhancement of § 2B3.1(b)(5) is AFFIRMED.