USCA4 Appeal: 21-7257     Doc: 57           Filed: 11/29/2023   Pg: 1 of 14




                                              PUBLISHED

                              UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                                  FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT


                                               No. 21-7257


        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

                    Plaintiff – Appellee,

        v.

        DEARNTA LAVON THOMAS, a/k/a Bloody Razor,

                    Defendant – Appellant.


        Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at
        Norfolk. Raymond A. Jackson, Senior District Judge. (2:11-cr-00058-RAJ-FBS-1; 2:21-
        cv-00147-RAJ)


        Argued: October 24, 2023                                   Decided: November 29, 2023


        Before WILKINSON, AGEE, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges.


        Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Agee
        and Judge Richardson joined.


        ARGUED: Frances H. Pratt, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER,
        Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Richard Daniel Cooke, OFFICE OF THE UNITED
        STATES ATTORNEY, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Geremy C.
        Kamens, Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER,
        Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Jessica D. Aber, United States Attorney, OFFICE OF
        THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee.
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        WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

               Dearnta Lavon Thomas pleaded guilty in 2011 to possessing a firearm in furtherance

        of a “crime of violence” in violation of 

(c), with the underlying crime of

        violence being VICAR assault with a dangerous weapon. Since his conviction, the

        Supreme Court has narrowed the kinds of crimes that can support a § 924(c) conviction.

        We must decide whether VICAR assault with a dangerous weapon is still one of them.

        Because we find that VICAR assault with a dangerous weapon remains a valid crime-of-

        violence predicate, we uphold Thomas’s conviction.

                                                    I.

                                                    A.

               Thomas was a founding member and “three-star general” of a street gang known as

        the Bounty Hunter Bloods/Nine Tech Gangsters. The gang sold drugs and engaged in

        violence around Southeast Virginia for almost eight years, until the United States Attorney

        for the Eastern District of Virginia took action in 2011. The resulting indictment charged

        eleven gang members with fifty-nine counts of firearm, drug, and racketeering offenses.

               For his part, Thomas—who went by the nickname “Bloody Razor”—was charged

        with racketeering under 

(c), violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity

        (VICAR) under 

(a), possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of

        violence under 

(c), possessing a firearm as a felon under § 

(g); and racketeering and drug conspiracy under 

(d) and 

. Soon after the indictment, he pleaded guilty to a substantive racketeering offense



                                                    2
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        and, pertinent to this appeal, to possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence

        under 

(c).

                  Thomas was sentenced to 60 months in prison for his racketeering conviction and

        the mandatory minimum of 120 months for his conviction under § 924(c). Though he did

        not directly appeal his conviction or his sentence, he has since filed several collateral