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