United States v. Kewarren Lamar Jones, 707 F. App'x 595

Kewarren Jones was sentenced to a 245-month total term: for distribution of cocaine base and for violating supervised release from a prior case.
At sentencing the district court classified Jones as a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1 based in part on a prior Florida false-imprisonment conviction as a "crime of violence."
The Guidelines’ § 4B1.2(a)(2) then included a residual clause defining crimes that "otherwise involve conduct that presents a serious potential risk of physical injury."
Jones argued that Florida false imprisonment does not qualify as a crime of violence and that the residual clause rendered the career-offender classification invalid.
He also challenged the court’s decision to run the sentence for distribution consecutive to the supervised-release revocation and contended the total sentence was substantively unreasonable.
The Eleventh Circuit consolidated Jones’s appeals, reviewed the career-offender classification de novo, and reviewed sentence reasonableness for abuse of discretion.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Whether Jones’s Florida false-imprisonment conviction qualifies as a "crime of violence" under the Guidelines’ residual clause	False imprisonment does not categorically qualify as a crime of violence; residual clause is ambiguous and lenity should apply	Prior precedent treats Florida false imprisonment as posing serious risk; Guidelines’ residual clause is not void-for-vagueness after Beckles	Affirmed: court did not err; false imprisonment qualifies under the Guidelines’ residual clause and classification as career offender stands
Whether running the drug sentence consecutive to the supervised-release revocation and the total 245-month sentence was unreasonable	Consecutive terms and total sentence are substantively unreasonable	Consecutive sentence consistent with Guidelines policy; each term within Guideline range; district court considered § 3553(a) factors	Affirmed: no abuse of discretion; consecutive sentencing consistent with U.S.S.G. § 7B1.3(f) and sentence was reasonable

United States v. Young, 527 F.3d 1274 (11th Cir. 2008) (standard for reviewing career-offender classification)
United States v. Schneider, 681 F.3d 1273 (11th Cir. 2012) (Florida false imprisonment poses serious potential risk; qualified as violent felony under ACCA residual clause)
United States v. Archer, 531 F.3d 1347 (11th Cir. 2008) (ACCA and Guidelines definitions are comparable for "crime of violence")
United States v. Matchett, 802 F.3d 1185 (11th Cir. 2015) (Guidelines cannot be challenged as unconstitutionally vague)
Beckles v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 886 (2017) (Supreme Court held advisory Sentencing Guidelines are not subject to vagueness challenge)
Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) (abuse-of-discretion standard for reviewing sentence reasonableness)
United States v. Flowers, 13 F.3d 395 (11th Cir. 1994) (upholding consecutive sentences for supervised-release violations)