UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

┐ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, │ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ > No. 22-3699 │ v. │ │ JARMAINE CARTER, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Toledo. No. 3:21-cr-00420-1—James R. Knepp II, District Judge.

Decided and Filed: June 2, 2023

Before: GRIFFIN, KETHLEDGE, and THAPAR, Circuit Judges.

_________________

COUNSEL ON BRIEF: Krysten E. Beech, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Toledo, Ohio, for Appellant. Jason Manion, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. _________________

OPINION _________________

THAPAR, Circuit Judge. Jarmaine Carter pled guilty to illegally possessing a firearm. Because Carter had been convicted of robbery, the district court enhanced Carter’s sentencing range. On appeal, Carter argues the enhancement was improper because robbery isn’t a crime of violence. We disagree and affirm. No. 22-3699 United States v. Carter Page 2

I.

After drunkenly beating his wife and threatening to shoot her with a handgun, Carter pled guilty to possessing a firearm as a felon. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2). This wasn’t Carter’s first time in court. He’d already been convicted of felony robbery under Ohio law. See Ohio Rev. Code § 2911.02(A)(2) (“Ohio robbery”). And at sentencing for the felon-in- possession offense, the district court held that Ohio robbery is a crime of violence. On that basis, it calculated an enhanced Guidelines range of 37–46 months’ imprisonment. See U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A); id. § 4B1.2. Considering the harm Carter caused his wife, the district court suggested the sentence would’ve been the same even without the enhancement.1 Ultimately, the court sentenced Carter to 38 months’ imprisonment.

II.

On appeal, Carter argues that Ohio robbery is not a crime of violence. We disagree.

The United States Sentencing Guidelines provide for an enhanced sentencing range if a defendant has been convicted of “a crime of violence.” Id. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). The Guidelines list certain crimes that qualify. Id. § 4B1.2(a)(2). That list includes robbery and extortion. Id.

At first blush, then, our task seems simple: we merely ask whether Carter’s conduct satisfies the elements of any enumerated crime of violence. But we’re bound to use the “categorical approach.” United States v. Camp, 903 F.3d 594, 599 (6th Cir. 2018). That means we must ignore the actual facts of Carter’s robbery offense and instead decide whether the elements of Ohio robbery are “the same as, or narrower than” the elements of a Guidelines offense. See Descamps v. United States, 570 U.S. 254, 257 (2013). If some hypothetical defendant can violate the Ohio robbery law without meeting the elements of a Guidelines- enumerated offense, Carter’s robbery offense isn’t a crime of viol