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. USCA4 Appeal: 21-7257 Doc: 57 Filed: 11/29/2023 Pg: 2 of 14

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

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

of a “crime of violence” in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(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 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c), violent crimes in aid of racketeering activity

(VICAR) under 18 U.S.C. § 1959(a), possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of

violence under 18 U.S.C. § 924(c), possessing a firearm as a felon under § 18 U.S.C.

§ 922(g); and racketeering and drug conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d) and 21 U.S.C.

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

2 USCA4 Appeal: 21-7257 Doc: 57 Filed: 11/29/2023 Pg: 3 of 14

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

under 18 U.S.C. § 924(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 18

U.S.C. § 2255 motions to vacate his § 924(c) conviction in light of changes in the law.

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