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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
KEVIN SHIELDS,
Defendant-Appellant.


No. 10-5004



Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Tennessee at Memphis.
No. 08-20377-1—Jon Phipps McCalla, Chief District Judge.
Decided and Filed: December 30, 2011
Before: COLE and ROGERS, Circuit Judges; SARGUS, District Judge.

_________________________
OPINION
_________________________

ROGERS, Circuit Judge. Defendant Kevin Shields challenges his 108-month sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). At issue is whether his base offense level should have been increased by four points, pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines § 2K2.1(b)(6), for possessing the weapon in connection with another felony. There was evidence that Shields had simultaneously possessed a firearm and a small, consumption-level amount of marijuana, plus some cocaine residue. The drug possession was a felony rather than a misdemeanor only because of Shields’s prior drug convictions. Although there was sufficient evidence to support the district court’s finding that Shields committed a felony under Tennessee law by possessing the drugs, the Government did not sufficiently demonstrate that Shields’s possession of a firearm facilitated, or had the potential to facilitate, his felony drug possession. Thus, his sentence was procedurally unreasonable.