United States v. Tommy Lee Hubbard, Jr.

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION
File Name: 23a0039n.06
No. 21-6219
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED
Jan 19, 2023
) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
)
Plaintiff-Appellee, )
) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED
v. ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR
) THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF
TOMMY LEE HUBBARD, JR., ) TENNESSEE
Defendant-Appellant. )
) OPINION
Before: STRANCH, MURPHY, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges.
JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. Tommy Lee Hubbard, Jr. appeals his 60-month
sentence for one charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 922(g)(1). Hubbard challenges two aspects of his sentence. He argues that the court improperly
applied an enhanced base offense level under USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A), which applies to defendants
with a prior felony conviction of “either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.”
Hubbard also argues that the district court improperly applied USSG § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B), which
authorizes a four-level enhancement when the defendant used or possessed the firearm “in
connection with another felony offense.” Because the sentencing court properly applied these
enhancements, we AFFIRM Hubbard’s sentence.
I. BACKGROUND
In March 2021, law enforcement officers executed an outstanding arrest warrant for
Hubbard while he was staying at another person’s apartment in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Officers
No. 21-6219, United States v. Hubbard
approached the door to this apartment, knocked, and announced “police with a warrant, open the
door.” The resident of the apartment answered the door, and Hubbard was observed standing
behind her. After Hubbard stated that he did not reside there, the resident gave consent for law
enforcement officers to search the apartment.
Officers found a loaded firearm—a Taurus .40 caliber pistol—in a storage container inside
the bathroom closet. Inside the same container as the pistol, officers also found a clear zip-top
plastic bag containing smaller baggies of what appeared to be marijuana, along with a digital scale.
The “field weight” of the substance was approximately 107 grams, which an officer estimated to
be “a couple of ounces of marijuana” without the weight of the packaging. Hubbard voluntarily
surrendered to the officers, who arrested him and transported him to jail. After waiving his
Miranda rights and agreeing to speak with the officers, Hubbard admitted that the gun, the scale,
and the “weed” were his. Officers also spoke with the resident of the apartment. She stated that
when the officers had knocked on the door, Hubbard “ran onto the balcony, came back into the
apartment, and ran into the bathroom area,” which was “where the plastic bin with the items was
recovered.”
Hubbard was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He pleaded guilty. Based on Hubbard’s calculated offense level (21) and
criminal history category (V), the Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) recommended a
Guidelines range of 70 to 87 months’ incarceration. In calculating Hubbard’s total offense level,
the PSR recommended an enhanced base offense level of 20 pursuant to USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A),
which is applicable under the Guidelines when the defendant “committed any part of the instant
offense subsequent to sustaining one felony conviction of either a crime of violence or a controlled
substance offense.” USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). This enhancement was based on Hubbard’s prior
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No. 21-6219, United States v. Hubbard
conviction for robbery under Tennessee law. The PSR also recommended applying a four-level
enhancement pursuant to USSG § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) for possessing a firearm “in connection with
another felony offense.” The other felony offense was Hubbard’s possession of “a felony amount
of marijuana.” After a three-point reduction for acceptance of responsibility under USSG § 3E1.1,
the PSR calculated a total offense level of 21.
Hubbard objected to the enhanced base offense level, arguing that his prior conviction for
robbery under Tennessee law did not qualify as a “crime of violence” under USSG § 4B1.2(a).
But the district court overruled Hubbard’s objection, determining that it was “well settled that a
conviction for Tennessee robbery is a crime of violence under the United States sentencing
guidelines.” Hubbard also objected to the four-level enhancement for possessing a firearm in
connection with another felony offense. He argued that the Government could not prove facts to
support the occurrence of another felony. Specifically, because the Government had failed to test
the marijuana for its THC content, and marijuana containing less than 0.3% THC is legal under
Tennessee and federal law, the Government could not prove he possessed illegal marijuana. The
district court overruled this objection, finding that the Government proved “it was [illegal]
marijuana” based on “all the evidence” including the “defendant’s own behavior at the scene when
he was arrested.”
The district court adopted the PSR’s recommendation and calculated a total offense level
of 21, criminal history category of V, and a Guidelines range of 70 to 87 months’ incarceration.
Hubbard then requested a downward variance from this range, arguing that his criminal history
was overstated. Hubbard had received 6 points for offenses he committed when he was 18 years
old. The Government opposed the request, but the district court granted the downward variance,
ultimately sentencing Hubbard to 60 months in prison. This timely appeal followed.
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II. ANALYSIS
A. The USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A) Enhancement for a Prior “Crime of Violence”
The first issue on appeal is whether Hubbard’s prior robbery conviction under Tennessee
law qualifies as a “crime of violence” as defined in the Guidelines. The so-called elements clause
of USSG § 4B1.2(a) provides that a crime of violence is a crime that “has as an element the use,
attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.” To determine
whether an offense is a crime of violence under the Guidelines, we employ a categorical approach,
looking “to the elements of a defendant’s prior offenses, rather than the facts supporting the
defendant’s convictions.” United States v. Butts, 40 F.4th 766, 770 (6th Cir. 2022) (citing United
States v. Camp, 903 F.3d 594, 599 (6th Cir. 2018)). This approach assumes that “the defendant
was convicted based on the least culpable conduct criminalized under the predicate offense and
then ask[s] whether the conduct would satisfy the Guidelines’ definition of ‘crime of violence.’”
Id. (citing United States v. Yates, 866 F.3d 723, 728 (6th Cir. 2017)). A district court’s
determination that a prior offense constitutes a crime of violence is reviewed de novo. Id. (citing
United States v. Cooper, 739 F.3d 873, 877 (6th Cir. 2014)).
Tennessee’s robbery statute provides that “[r]obbery is the intentional or knowing theft of
property from the person of another by violence or putting the person in fear.” Tenn. Code Ann.
§ 39-13-401(a). Our circuit determined in United States v. Mitchell, 743 F.3d 1054, 1059-60 (6th
Cir. 2014), that robbery as defined by Tennessee law is a “violent felony” under the Armed Career
Criminal Act (ACCA)’s elements clause, which parallels the Guidelines’ elements clause.
See United States v. Patterson, 853 F.3d 298, 305 (6th Cir. 2017) (“We have not hesitated to use
authority interpreting the elements clause in the Armed Career Criminal Act in interpreting the
same phrase in the Guidelines.”). Tennessee law defines robbery as theft either by violence or by
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“fear of bodily injury and of present personal peril from violence offered or impending,” which
corresponds with the elements clause’s requirement that a crime of violence has as an element the
use or threatened use of physical force. See Mitchell, 743 F.3d at 1059 (quoting State v. Taylor,
771 S.W.2d 387, 398 (Tenn. 1989)); see also USSG § 4B1.2(a).
Hubbard first argues that Tennessee robbery is not a crime of violence under the Guidelines
because a defendant can be convicted of robbery by threatening force or putting someone in fear
negligently rather than intentionally. He asserts that Mitchell was abrogated by Elonis v. United
States, 575 U.S. 723 (2015), and Borden v. United States, 141 S. Ct. 1817 (2021), in which the
Supreme Court held that crimes committed with a merely reckless or negligent mens rea do not
qualify as crimes of violence. But our recent decisions in United States v. Belcher, 40 F.4th 430(6th Cir. 2022), and United States v. Riddle, No. 21-5416, 2022 WL 2679102, at *1 (6th Cir. July
12, 2022) foreclose this argument.1 Belcher reaffirmed Mitchell’s holding that Tennessee robbery
is a crime of violence despite the defendant’s arguments that “a defendant can be convicted of that
offense by threatening force negligently rather than intentionally” or by “negligently caus[ing] his
victim to experience fear.” Belcher, 40 F.4th at 431-32 (discussing Taylor, 771 S.W.2d at 398,
and State v. Witherspoon, 648 S.W.2d 279, 281 (Tenn. Crim. App. 1983)); see also Riddle, 2022
WL 2679102, at *1. Finding no basis “to conclude that Mitchell misapprehends Tennessee law,”
we adhered “to our earlier holding that robbery as defined by Tennessee law is a violent felony
under the ACCA,” and therefore a crime of violence under the Guidelines. Belcher, 40 F.4th at
432; see Riddle, 2022 WL 2679102, at *1.
1
These cases were pending when Hubbard filed his opening brief but were decided before he filed his reply. Perhaps
recognizing that these cases are issue-determinative here, Hubbard abandons this argument in his reply.
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Next, Hubbard argues that robbery under Tennessee law is not a crime of violence because
robbery-by-fear can be committed by threatening to falsely accuse the victim of sodomy. Based
on dicta in an 1846 Tennessee Supreme Court case, Hubbard argues that robbery-by-fear can be
committed by falsely accusing the victim of the “crimen innominatum,” i.e., sodomy. Britt v.
State, 26 Tenn. 45, 46 (1846). Britt’s actual holding is that “[t]he fear constituting an element of
the crime is a fear of present personal peril from violence offered or impending.” Id. Accordingly,
Britt reversed the conviction of a defendant who had committed robbery by “falsely charging” the
victim “with the commission of a felony.” Id. The court did note the existence of a possible
exception to the rule that robbery cannot be committed by threatening to falsely accuse the victim
of a crime. It suggested that “threatening to prosecute an innocent man for . . . the crimen
innominatum” could constitute robbery because of the “over-whelming and withering character of
the charge and its damning infamy, so well calculated to unman and subdue the will and alarm the
fears of the falsely accused.”2 Id.The Government argues that later Tennessee decisions have left that possible exception “if
it exists, to languish as dicta.” Hubbard fails to point to any case that has cited Britt for the
proposition that robbery could be committed by falsely accusing the victim of sodomy.3 Cases
that have cited Britt have cited it for the proposition that robbery-by-fear requires “fear of ‘bodily
2
This reasoning may have been abrogated by Campbell v. Sundquist, 926 S.W.2d 250 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1996) (appeal
denied), which struck down as unconstitutional Tennessee’s Homosexual Practices Act and its criminalization of
same-sex intimate sexual conduct. Id. at 266. See also Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 563, 578 (2003). Moreover,
Congress recently passed the Respect for Marriage Act, federally recognizing the validity of same-sex marriages. See
Pub. L. 117-228, 136 Stat. 2305 (2022).
3
This is what distinguishes the present case from United States v. White, 987 F.3d 340 (4th Cir. 2021), where the
Fourth Circuit certified a question to the Virginia Supreme Court, asking whether Virginia common law robbery could
be committed by accusing the victim of sodomy. There, numerous Virginia decisions had recognized the so-called
“sodomy exception.” Id. at 344-45. Hubbard has not shown that the same is true in Tennessee, nor requested that we
certify a question to the Tennessee Supreme Court asking whether robbery-by-accusation-of-sodomy exists under
Tennessee law.
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danger or impending peril to the person.’” See, e.g., State v. Bowles, 52 S.W.3d 69, 80 (Tenn.
2001). Indeed, that is why we have held that robbery under Tennessee law satisfies the elements
clause of the ACCA, as well as the Guidelines. See Mitchell, 743 F.3d at 1059; Belcher, 40 F.4th
at 432.
The sentencing court did not err when it applied an enhanced base offense level pursuant
to USSG § 2K2.1(a) for Hubbard’s prior conviction for robbery under Tennessee law. The district
court was correct that it is “well settled that a conviction for Tennessee robbery is a crime of
violence under the United States sentencing guidelines.”
B. The Enhancement for Possession of a Firearm in Connection with Another
Felony Under USSG § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)
Hubbard’s next argument is that the district court erred in applying the four-level
enhancement for possessing a firearm in connection with another felony offense under USSG
§ 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) because the Government presented insufficient evidence to show that he
possessed illegal marijuana. He argues that, because it is legal under Tennessee and federal law
to possess marijuana containing a concentration of less than 0.3% of THC, the Government was
required to test the marijuana-like substance found during the search to prove it was illegal
marijuana.
“In the specific context of the § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) firearm enhancement, ‘we review the
district court’s factual findings for clear error and accord due deference to the district court’s
determination that the firearm was used or possessed in connection with the other felony, thus
warranting the application of the enhancement.’” United States v. Seymour, 739 F.3d 923, 929
(6th Cir. 2014) (quoting United States v. Taylor, 648 F.3d 417, 432 (6th Cir. 2011) (cleaned up)).
“The Government bears the burden of establishing the factors supporting this enhancement by a
preponderance of the evidence.” Id. (citation omitted).
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Hubbard does not dispute that the Government established the following facts at the
sentencing hearing, through testimony by Special Agent Adam Baldwin of the Bureau of Alcohol,
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives:
• Hubbard called the substance “weed.”
• The substance was packaged in “corner baggies” or “sandwich bags” which are typically
used to contain controlled substances.
• The packaging had none of the hallmarks of the packaging used for legal CBD products or
hemp, like brand names, store names, or other markings.
• After seeing the police, Hubbard ran into the bathroom area where the substance was later
found.
• The amount of the substance was more consistent with distribution than personal use.
• The substance was found with a digital scale.
• The substance was found with a loaded gun.
Hubbard himself has never stated whether the substance was illegal marijuana or legal
cannabis, hemp, or CBD; he referred to it only as “weed.” Instead, he contends that none of this
circumstantial evidence shows that the THC content of the marijuana exceeded the legal threshold,
which he posits is required. Hubbard, however, provides no case precedent establishing that the
Government must perform a lab test to support the application of the sentencing enhancement in
these circumstances. Even “in the more demanding context of a criminal trial,” we have long held
that “scientific identification of a substance is [not] an absolute prerequisite to conviction for a
drug-related offense,” and that the “government may establish the identity of a drug through
cumulative circumstantial evidence.” United States v. Malone, 846 F. App’x 355, 361 (6th Cir.
2021) (alteration in Malone) (quoting United States v. Schrock, 855 F.2d 327, 334 (6th Cir. 1988));
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see also United States v. Swift, 276 F. App’x 439, 442 (6th Cir. 2008) (“[T]he lack of a lab report
is not dispositive.”).
The facts in this record, especially the close proximity of the pistol, the scale, and the bag
of marijuana inside the same storage container, support the application of the § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)
sentencing enhancement. See United States v. Shanklin, 924 F.3d 905, 921 (6th Cir. 2019) (noting
that while “we have never established a bright-line test,” the proximity “of the weapon to drugs is
often a key factor in applying the enhancement under § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)”); see also Taylor, 648
F.3d at 432 (explaining that the “proximity of the gun to the drugs” is a relevant factor to be
considered). “A factual finding is clearly erroneous when the reviewing court on the entire
evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United
States v. Stafford, 721 F.3d 380, 400 (6th Cir. 2013) (quoting United States v. Moon, 513 F.3d 527,
540 (6th Cir. 2008)). The sentencing court did not clearly err when it found that the cumulative
and circumstantial evidence showed that the substance in this case was—more likely than not—
illegal marijuana, making the four-level sentencing enhancement applicable.
III. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, we AFFIRM Hubbard’s sentence.
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