United States v. Randolph A. Parker

The United States appeals the district court’s refusal to sentence Randolph Parker to a fifteen-year term of imprisonment upon his conviction of possession of a firearm by a felon, 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g). We conclude that, in determining whether a prior conviction following a jury trial was a “violent felony” for purposes of the armed career criminal provision, 18 U.S.C. § 924 (e), the sentencing court may not resort to the charging instrument alone. Nor may it resort solely to the charging paper and verdict form where the form fails to reflect that the requisite facts were found by the jury. We therefore affirm.

I

On February 20,1992, a jury found Parker. guilty of one count of possession of a firearm by a felon, 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g). On the basis of convictions for assaults of police officers in 1972 and 1977 and for second-degree burglary in 1968, the .presentence report concluded that Parker fell under the armed career criminal provision, 18 ILS.C. § 924(e). Under that statute, a felon convicted of possessing a firearm who has three previous convictions “for a violent felony or a serious drug offense” must receive, a minimum sentence of fifteen years’ imprisonment. 18 U.S.C. §.…