In the United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit ________

AUGUST TERM 2022

ARGUED: OCTOBER 27, 2022 DECIDED: JULY 18, 2023

No. 21-1486

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee,

v.

KAREEM DAVIS, Defendant-Appellant. * 1

________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. ________

Before: WALKER, LEE, and ROBINSON, Circuit Judges. ________

Defendant-Appellant Kareem Davis appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Schofield, J.) after a jury found him

* The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to amend the caption accordingly. guilty of racketeering conspiracy (Count One); murder in aid of racketeering (Count Two); and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence (Count Three). Davis argues that his Count Three conviction must be vacated because his predicate offense of murder in aid of racketeering was not a crime of violence. We disagree.

We reject the other arguments raised in Davis’s appeal in a summary order filed concurrently with this opinion. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

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JORDAN ESTES (Christopher Clore, Alexandra Rothman, Stephen J. Ritchin, on the brief), Assistant United States Attorneys, for Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, New York, NY, for Appellee the United States of America.

RICHARD H. ROSENBERG, New York, NY, for Defendant-Appellant Kareem Davis.

________ JOHN M. WALKER, JR., Circuit Judge:

Defendant-Appellant Kareem Davis appeals from a judgment of conviction entered by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Schofield, J.) after a jury found him guilty of racketeering conspiracy (Count One); murder in aid of racketeering (Count Two); and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence (Count Three). Davis argues that his Count

2 Three conviction must be vacated because his predicate offense of murder in aid of racketeering was not a crime of violence. We disagree.

We reject the other arguments raised in Davis’s appeal in a summary order filed concurrently with this opinion. Accordingly, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court.

BACKGROUND

In 2018, Davis was indicted for multiple offenses arising from his alleged membership in Killbrook, a criminal gang that operated in the South Bronx, New York, and his participation in the 2011 gang- related murder of Bolivia Beck, the girlfriend of a rival gang member. As relevant here, Count Two of the indictment charged Davis with murder in aid of racketeering (“VICAR murder”) pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a)(1), in violation of N.Y. Penal Law §§ 125.25, 125.27, and 20.00. 1 Count Three charged Davis with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of, a crime of violence, “namely, the murder in aid of racketeering charged in Count Two,” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). 2

At trial, the government presented