UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. PATRICK ANDREW GROVES, Defendant - Appellant.
No. 22-4095
United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
April 14, 2023
PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 22-4095
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at
Wheeling. John Preston Bailey, District Judge. (5:20-cr-00018-JPB-JPM-1)
Argued: September 14, 2022 Decided: April 14, 2023
Before KING, AGEE, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by published opinion. Judge King wrote the opinion, in which Judge Agee and
Judge Thacker joined.
ARGUED: Jenny R. Thoma, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER,
Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellant. Sarah Wagner, OFFICE OF THE UNITED
STATES ATTORNEY, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Brendan
S. Leary, Assistant Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC
DEFENDER, Wheeling, West Virginia, for Appellant. William Ihlenfeld, United States
Attorney, David J. Perri, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED
STATES ATTORNEY, Wheeling, West Virginia, for Appellee.
KING, Circuit Judge:
Defendant Patrick Andrew Groves appeals from the sentence he received in the
Northern District of West Virginia in February 2022 after pleading guilty to unlawfully
possessing a firearm and ammunition, in contravention of
contends that the district court erred by treating a federal drug offense on which he was
convicted in 2014 — aiding and abetting in the distribution of a controlled substance, in
violation of
offense” that increased his Sentencing Guidelines offense level. Groves has proffered two
principal arguments as to why his 2014 offense is not a “controlled substance offense”
under the Guidelines. First, he asserts that aiding
treated as a “controlled substance offense” in Guidelines calculations. Second, Groves
maintains that, in any event, each and every § 841(a)(1) distribution offense is disqualified
from such treatment. As explained herein, we reject Groves’s challenge to his sentence
and affirm the criminal judgment entered by the district court.
I.
A grand jury in the Northern District of West Virginia returned a nine-count
indictment in 2014 charging Groves and two codefendants with involvement earlier that
year in a drug distribution ring in West Virginia and elsewhere. One of the four charges
lodged against Groves in 2014 was that he had aided and abetted in a
offense involving the distribution of cocaine base (the “2014 offense”). Section 841(a)(1)
spells out the predominant federal drug distribution offense and provides, in pertinent part,
that “it shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally . . . to . . . distribute . . .
a controlled substance.” In addition to § 841(a)(1), the charge against Groves was alleged
and pursued under
and reads as follows:
(a) Whoever commits an offense against the United States or aids, abets,
counsels, commands, induces or procures its commission, is
punishable as a principal.
(b) Whoever willfully causes an act to be done which if directly
performed by him or another would be an offense against the United
States, is punishable as a principal.
See
offense and was sentenced in February 2015 to three years of probation.
Being a convicted felon because of the 2014 offense, Groves was thereafter
prohibited under federal law from possessing a firearm. But while responding to a drug
overdose incident in Wheeling in April 2020, law enforcement officers discovered a loaded
firearm in Groves’s possession. Groves subsequently admitted to the authorities that the
firearm was stolen. In August 2020, another grand jury in the Northern District of West
Virginia indicted him for unlawfully possessing a firearm and ammunition, in
contravention of
2021, but he reserved his right to appeal an adverse ruling on whether his 2014 offense
qualifies as a “controlled substance offense” under the Sentencing Guidelines.
In the presentence investigation report (the “PSR”) prepared in March 2021, the
probation office treated Groves’s 2014 offense as a “controlled substance offense” and thus
recommended an offense level of 20 under the guideline applicable to a § 922(g)(1)
offense. See USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A) (assigning an offense level of 20 if “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”). Otherwise, the offense
level under that guideline would have been 14. Id. § 2K2.1(a)(6). Ultimately, Groves’s
PSR calculated an adjusted offense level of 19 and a criminal history category of II,
resulting in an advisory Guidelines range of 33 to 41 months of imprisonment.2
contested the treatment of the 2014 offense as a “controlled substance offense” and asserted
that his offense level under Guidelines section 2K2.1 should thus be 14, not 20. Groves
emphasized that position and provided further support for it in a January 28, 2022
supplemental objection to the PSR, advising the district court of our January 7, 2022
decision in United States v. Campbell. See 22 F.4th 438, 440-49 (4th Cir. 2022)
(concluding that prior conviction under West Virginia drug distribution statute that
criminalizes attempt was improper predicate for Guidelines enhancement because attempt
offense cannot be treated as “controlled substance offense” in Guidelines calculations).
During the sentencing hearing conducted on February 1, 2022, the district court
overruled Groves’s objection with respect to the 2014 offense. The court then adopted the
PSR’s calculations and agreed with the government’s recommendation that Groves receive
a low-end Guidelines sentence, imposing a term of 33 months of imprisonment, followed
by three years of supervised release. Groves has timely noted this appeal.
II.
On appeal, Groves continues to maintain that his 2014 offense is not a “controlled
substance offense” for purposes of the Sentencing Guidelines. He thereby presents a legal
issue that we review de novo. See United States v. Ward, 972 F.3d 364, 368 (4th Cir.
2020). We address in turn Groves’s two primary arguments in support of his position —
first, that aiding and abetting in a drug offense cannot be treated as a “controlled substance
offense” in Guidelines calculations and, second, that each and every
distribution offense is also disqualified from such treatment.
A.
We start with Groves’s argument that aiding and abetting in a drug offense cannot
constitute a “controlled substance offense” under the Guidelines. As explained above, in
sentencing Groves on his
offense level of 20 under Guidelines section 2K2.1 because Groves “committed any part
of the instant offense subsequent to sustaining one felony conviction of . . . a controlled
substance offense.” See USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). That guideline incorporates the
definition of a “controlled substance offense” provided in Guidelines section 4B1.2(b), as
well as the commentary thereto. Id. § 2K2.1 cmt. n.1. Pursuant to Guidelines section
4B1.2(b), a “controlled substance offense” is defined as
an offense under federal or state law, punishable by imprisonment for a term
exceeding one year, that prohibits the manufacture, import, export,
distribution, or dispensing of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit
substance) or the possession of a controlled substance (or a counterfeit
substance) with intent to manufacture, import, export, distribute, or dispense.
Id. § 4B1.2(b). The relevant commentary, set forth in Application Note 1 of Guidelines
section 4B1.2(b), states that the definition of a “controlled substance offense” in that
guideline “include[s] the offenses of aiding and abetting, conspiring, and attempting to
commit such offenses.” Id. § 4B1.2 cmt. n.1.
addressed whether Application Note 1 serves to expand Guidelines section 4B1.2(b)’s
definition of a “controlled substance offense” to include an attempt to commit such an
offense. See 22 F.4th at 441-49. We concluded in Campbell that it
cannot and thus does not. Id. In so ruling, we emphasized the “crucial” textual difference
between Guidelines section 4B1.2(b) (which “does not mention attempt offenses”) and
Application Note 1 (which expressly does). Id. at 442, 444. Invoking Supreme Court
precedent, we explained that the variance in wording renders Application Note 1
inconsistent with Guidelines section 4B1.2(b), thereby requiring us to adhere to the text of
the guideline alone. Id. at 443-47 (relying on, inter alia, Stinson v. United States, 508 U.S.
36, 38 (1993), for the proposition that the “commentary to the Sentencing Guidelines ‘is
authoritative unless it . . . is inconsistent with, or a plainly erroneous reading of, that
guideline’”).
Groves relies on the fact that, like attempt, aiding and abetting is not mentioned in
Guidelines section 4B1.2(b), but is expressly included in the commentary set forth in
Application Note 1. As Groves would have it, Campbell dictates that the distinction in
wording renders Application Note 1 inconsistent with Guidelines section 4B1.2(b), thereby
requiring us to adhere to the text of the guideline.
For its part, the government counters that Campbell’s rationale “in relation to
attempt offenses does not logically extend to aiding and abetting.” See Br. of Appellee 4.
According to the government, the Campbell analysis is inapposite because “an aider and
abettor to a crime generally is punishable under federal law as a principal.” See United
States v. Allen, 909 F.3d 671, 675 (4th Cir. 2018). That is, aiding and abetting — unlike
attempt — is “not a separate offense,” but is rather “a theory of liability for a substantive
offense.” See Br. of Appellee 16-17. The government consequently asserts that — rather
than seeking to expand Guidelines section 4B1.2(b) — the inclusion of aiding and abetting
in Application Note 1 “mak[es] explicit what is already inherent in [Guidelines section]
4B1.2(b).” Id. at 18.
We readily agree with the government on the aiding and abetting issue. As our
Court has consistently explained, aiding and abetting is a theory of criminal liability for an
underlying substantive offense. That is because “[a]iding and abetting is not a standalone
criminal offense,” but rather “simply describes the way in which a defendant’s conduct
resulted in a violation of a particular [federal] law.” See United States v. Ali, 991 F.3d 561,
573 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 142 S. Ct. 486 (2021) (internal quotation marks omitted);
accord United States v. Barefoot, 754 F.3d 226, 239 (4th Cir. 2014) (recognizing that
“[a]iding and abetting is not itself a federal offense, but merely describes the way in which
a defendant’s conduct resulted in the violation of a particular law”). Indeed, it has always
been a “pervasive provision” of federal law — consistent with § 2 of Title 18 — “that
aiders and abettors are principals.” See United States v. Cammorto, 859 F.3d 311, 315 (4th
Cir. 2017) (citing Gonzales v. Duenas-Alvarez, 549 U.S. 183, 185 (2007)).
Moreover, when viewed as a whole, the Sentencing Guidelines confirm that aiding
and abetting in an offense should be treated just like the underlying substantive offense —
and different from an attempt offense. In fact, “aiding and abetting” has its own guideline,
providing — again, consistent with § 2 of Title 18 — that “[t]he offense level [for aiding
and abetting] is
Meanwhile, an attempt offense is punished under the Guidelines as a lesser offense than
the substantive offense to which it relates. Id. § 2X1.1(a).
Although it did not decide the issue, Campbell itself suggested that an offense
prosecuted on an aiding and abetting theory can qualify as a “controlled substance offense.”
That suggestion arises from Campbell’s reference to our precedent that distinguishes aiding
and abetting criminal liability from attempt offenses. See 22 F.4th at 442 n.2 (comparing
Allen, 909 F.3d at 675 (“[T]he long-standing rule [is] that an aider and abettor to a crime
generally is punishable under federal law as a principal.”), with United States v. Pratt, 351
F.3d 131, 135 (4th Cir. 2003) (“An attempt to commit a crime . . . is recognized as a crime
distinct from the crime intended by the attempt . . . .”)).
Stated most succinctly, an offense prosecuted on an aiding and abetting theory can
qualify as a “controlled substance offense” under Guidelines section 4B1.2(b), in that it is
the same as the underlying substantive offense. Unlike the inclusion of attempt offenses
addressed in Campbell, the inclusion of aiding and abetting in Application Note 1 was not
an effort to improperly expand Guidelines section 4B1.2(b)’s definition of a “controlled
substance offense.”
B.
Having disposed of Groves’s aiding and abetting contention in favor of the
government, we turn to his argument that no
constitute a “controlled substance offense” under Guidelines section 4B1.2(b). According
to Groves, that is so because § 841(a)(1) criminalizes an attempt offense, which our
Campbell decision precludes from being treated as a “controlled substance offense” in
Guidelines calculations.
1.
As we explained in Campbell, “[t]o determine whether a conviction under an
asserted predicate offense statute . . . constitutes a ‘controlled substance offense’ as defined
by the Sentencing Guidelines, we employ the categorical approach.” See 22 F.4th at 441
(citing Ward, 972 F.3d at 368). The categorical approach requires us to “focus[] on the
elements of the prior offense rather than the conduct underlying the conviction.” See
United States v. Dozier, 848 F.3d 180, 183 (4th Cir. 2017) (emphasis and internal quotation
marks omitted). “If the ‘least culpable’ conduct criminalized by the predicate offense
statute does not qualify as a ‘controlled substance offense,’ the prior conviction cannot
support a [Guidelines] enhancement.” See Campbell, 22 F.4th at 441 (quoting United
States v. King, 673 F.3d 274, 278 (4th Cir. 2012)).
In Campbell, we determined that the least culpable conduct criminalized by the
predicate offense statute at issue — a West Virginia drug distribution statute — was “an
attempt to deliver a controlled substance.” See 22 F.4th at 442. That is, we interpreted the
West Virginia statute to criminalize the attempt offense of attempted delivery.
Consequently, we concluded that a conviction under the West Virginia statute was an
invalid basis for a Guidelines enhancement, in that an attempt offense cannot constitute a
“controlled substance offense” under Guidelines section 4B1.2(b). Id. at 442, 449.3
As Groves would have it, the federal drug distribution statute relevant herein,
thus a § 841(a)(1) conviction cannot support a Guidelines enhancement. In pertinent part,
§ 841(a)(1) makes it “unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally . . . to . . .
distribute . . . a controlled substance.” See
means “to deliver (other than by administering or dispensing) a controlled substance.” Id.
§ 802(11). And the term “deliver” is defined as the “actual, constructive, or attempted
transfer of a controlled substance.” Id. § 802(8) (emphasis added). In asserting that
§ 841(a)(1) criminalizes the attempt offense of attempted delivery, Groves equates an
“attempted transfer” with an “attempted delivery.”
Our Court has not heretofore decided whether — by incorporating a definition of
“delivery” that includes “attempted transfer” — § 841(a)(1) criminalizes the attempt
offense of attempted delivery. Three of our sister courts of appeals (the Third, the Sixth,
and the Eleventh Circuits) have recently concluded, however, that an “attempted transfer”
is not an “attempted delivery” under § 841(a)(1) and analogous state drug distribution
statutes. See United States v. Booker, 994 F.3d 591, 595-96 (6th Cir. 2021) (interpreting
§ 841(a)(1)); see also United States v. Penn, No. 21-12420, __ F.4th __, 2023 WL
2623586, at *9 (11th Cir. Mar. 24, 2023) (§ 841(a)(1) and Florida statute); United States v.
Dawson, 32 F.4th 254, 259 (3d Cir. 2021) (Pennsylvania statute); United States v. Thomas, 969
F.3d 583, 584-85 (6th Cir. 2020) (Michigan statute); United States v. Garth, 965 F.3d
493, 496-98 (6th Cir. 2020) (Tennessee statute). Those courts see an “attempted transfer”
as “a completed delivery rather than an attempt crime.” See Booker, 994 F.3d at 596
(internal quotation marks omitted); see also Penn, 2023 WL 2623586, at *9 (recognizing
that “the attempted transfer of drugs constitutes a completed distribution offense”);
Dawson, 32 F.4th at 259 (ruling that a “drug ‘delivery’ is a complete[d] offense, whether
it is committed via actual or attempted transfer of drugs”).
That view has been predicated on the fact that attempt offenses are criminalized
separately from completed offenses under the relevant federal and state schemes. For
example, federal law criminalizes attempt offenses with respect to controlled substances in
. . . to commit any offense defined in this subchapter shall be subject to the same penalties
as those prescribed for the offense, the commission of which was the object of the attempt.”
See
interpreted an “attempted transfer” under § 841(a)(1) to be a completed delivery and thus
a completed distribution offense. See Booker, 994 F.3d at 596 (explaining that “[w]e must
‘construe statutes, where possible, so as to avoid rendering superfluous any parts thereof’”
(quoting Astoria Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n v. Solimino, 501 U.S. 104, 112 (1991))).
Additionally, the Sixth Circuit has underscored how utterly “remarkable” it would
be to conclude “that § 841(a)(1) did not describe a ‘controlled substance offense’
[Guidelines section] 4B1.2(b).” See Booker, 994 F.3d at 596. As that court explained,
when Congress directed the Sentencing Commission to enact the guidelines related to
career offenders — including the definition of “controlled substance offense” in Guidelines
section 4B1.2(b) — it “specifically instructed that ‘offense[s] described in . . .
(2)(B)). Consequently, to except § 841(a)(1) offenses from the Guidelines’ definition of a
“controlled substance offense” would be to “hold that the Sentencing Commission failed
to comply with this statutory command.” Id. Moreover, it would be to proclaim “that the
primary federal statute criminalizing offenses related to controlled substances does not
count as a ‘controlled substance offense’ under the Guidelines.” Id.
We agree with the Sixth Circuit that an “attempted transfer” is not an “attempted
delivery” under § 841(a)(1), and that § 841(a)(1) therefore does not criminalize the attempt
offense of attempted delivery. That is because construing § 841(a)(1) to criminalize an
attempt offense would render § 846 superfluous. It is also because such an interpretation
would absurdly exclude § 841(a)(1) distribution offenses — quintessential federal drug
trafficking crimes — from treatment as a “controlled substance offense” in Guidelines
calculations.
3.
Groves nevertheless maintains that we are constrained by our Campbell decision to
rule that
Groves’s contention relies on the proposition that § 841(a)(1) is materially
indistinguishable from the West Virginia drug distribution statute analyzed in Campbell.
According to Groves, because we interpreted the West Virginia statute to criminalize
attempted delivery, we must now construe § 841(a)(1) the exact same way.4
The West Virginia statute analyzed in Campbell “makes it ‘unlawful for any person
to . . . deliver . . . a controlled substance.’” See 22 F.4th at 441-42 (emphasis omitted)
(quoting W. Va. Code § 60A-4-401(a)). And that West Virginia statute defines the term
“deliver” as “‘the actual, constructive or attempted transfer from one person to another of’
controlled substances.” Id. at 442 (quoting W. Va. Code § 60A-1-101(h)). Based on that
(South Carolina statute); United States v. Locklear, No. 19-4443, 2022 WL 2764421
language, we deduced that “the least culpable conduct criminalized by the West Virginia
statute is an attempt to deliver a controlled substance.” Id.
To be sure, the language of the West Virginia drug distribution statute is similar to
that of § 841(a)(1). The problem for Groves is that the West Virginia scheme — at least
as it was presented in Campbell — does not criminalize attempt offenses separately from
completed drug distribution offenses. That renders the West Virginia scheme materially
different from the federal scheme, wherein completed drug distribution offenses are
defined in § 841(a)(1) and attempt offenses in
§ 841(a)(1) to criminalize an attempt offense would
See Booker, 994 F.3d at 596 (internal quotation marks omitted). That was simply not a
concern in Campbell with respect to the West Virginia drug distribution statute.
Notably, Groves asserts in this appeal that, under the West Virginia scheme, attempt
offenses are actually criminalized separately (in West Virginia Code section 61-11-8) from
completed drug distribution offenses. But that point cannot impact our interpretation of
§ 841(a)(1). Rather, that point may bear on the proper construction of the West Virginia
drug distribution statute. Of course, even if Campbell’s reading of the West Virginia
statute was somehow flawed, this panel has no power to overturn the Campbell panel’s
work. See McMellon v. United States, 387 F.3d 329, 333 (4th Cir. 2004) (en banc)
(explaining “the basic rule that one panel cannot overrule another”). Thus, we limit our
focus today on § 841(a)(1). Put simply, we conclude that § 841(a)(1) does not criminalize
the attempt offense of attempted delivery. As such, we rule that a § 841(a)(1) distribution
offense is not categorically disqualified from being treated as a “controlled substance
offense” under Guidelines section 4B1.2(b).5
* * *
At bottom, we must reject each of Groves’s two principal arguments as to why his
2014 offense — aiding and abetting in a
is not a “controlled substance offense” under the Sentencing Guidelines. First, the
Guidelines’ definition of a “controlled substance offense” includes aiding and abetting in
a drug offense. Second, although the Guidelines exclude attempt offenses, § 841(a)(1)
does not criminalize attempt such that an § 841(a)(1) distribution offense would be
categorically disqualified from being treated as a “controlled substance offense.”6
III.
Pursuant to the foregoing, we affirm the criminal judgment entered by the district
court.
AFFIRMED