UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT _______________

No. 22-1786 _______________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

v.

JAMES CHANDLER, Appellant _______________

On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 2-21-cr-00049-001) District Judge: Honorable R. Barclay Surrick _______________

Argued

April 26, 2023 Before: JORDAN, KRAUSE, and BIBAS, Circuit Judges

(Filed: June 11, 2024) _______________ Abigail E. Horn [ARGUED] FEDERAL COMMUNITY DEFENDER OFFICE EASTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA 601 Walnut Street The Curtis Center, Suite 540 West Philadelphia, PA 19106 Counsel for Appellant Eileen C. Geiger [ARGUED] Justin Oshana U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE 615 Chestnut Street, Suite 1250 Philadelphia, PA 19106 Counsel for Appellee _______________

OPINION OF THE COURT _______________ JORDAN, Circuit Judge.

James Chandler used a fake gun to twice rob on-duty United States Postal Service employees. In one of the robberies, he also kidnapped his victim. His use of what appeared to be a revolver was meant to scare his victims into compliance, and it did. The District Court therefore did not err when it enhanced Chandler’s sentence for using the replica gun in the robberies and the kidnapping, nor in accepting his guilty plea to armed robbery charges. As for the kidnapping, Chandler’s motivation was, at least in part, that the mail carrier was a government employee, so a further sentence enhancement was justified. We will therefore affirm his conviction and sentence.

2 I. BACKGROUND

Early one evening, a uniformed mailman parked his delivery truck in West Philadelphia and began his rounds. Chandler walked up behind him, pulled out what appeared to be a handgun, and pressed the muzzle to his back. Chandler was wearing a blue zip-up sweatshirt emblazoned with the letters “USPS.” He threatened to kill the mailman and demanded packages, cards, and cash. He then forced the mailman to get into the back of the truck, before fleeing with four packages and several dollars.

A few weeks later, Chandler struck again. This time, the victim was a mail carrier who had parked her mail truck in West Philadelphia, half a mile from the location of the first robbery. Chandler, wearing the same USPS sweatshirt, again approached from behind and pointed the same fake revolver at his victim. He made her open the truck and put about three dozen packages into sacks. Under duress, she drove him to an address a mile away. Chandler then fled with the packages.

The next day, police arrested Chandler. In his waistband, they found the revolver, which turned out to be a gun replica that could not be fired. The postal carrier he robbed identified him and he confessed to stealing packages. He consented to a search of his apartment, where postal inspectors found the blue zip-up USPS sweatshirt stuffed inside a pillowcase.

Chandler was charged with two counts of armed robbery of a postal worker, under 18 U.S.C. § 2114(a), and one count of kidnapping a government employee, under

3 § 1201(a)(5). He pled guilty to all three charges. As relevant here, the parties disputed two enhancements at sentencing: one, for using a dangerous weapon during a kidnapping and a robbery, U.S.S.G. §§ 2A4.1(b)(3), 2B3.1(b)(2)(D), and the other, for kidnapping a government employee, id. § 3A1.2(a)(1)(A), (a)(2). Agreeing with the government, the sentencing judge imposed both enhancements. Those rulings resulted in a final offense level of 37 and a guidelines ra