United States v. Lorenz Vilim Karlic

This case involves whether a defendant may be held to have knowingly, as opposed to recklessly, created a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury for purposes of a sentencing enhancement under section 2K1.4 of the Sentencing Guidelines.

I

In the predawn hours of three separate Mondays in May and June 1990, appellant Lorenz Vilim Karlic and his partner, Rodney Burl Smith, used homemade explosives to blast open the safes below night depository boxes in three banks in the area of Palm Springs, California. On each occasion Karlic stood guard at the front of the bank while Smith broke open the night depository box and dropped a lit explosive down a chute into the safe. After the explosion Karlic and Smith collected the money that was scattered on the ground. Ml three banks suffered extensive damage, and one was completely demolished.

Karlic pled guilty to a nine-count indictment charging him with maliciously damaging and destroying a building and personal property used in an activity affecting interstate commerce in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844 (i), entering a bank whose deposits were insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation with intent to commit larceny in…