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McKnight v. U.S.

'Davis' Has No Effect on Drug Trafficking Predicate to 28 USC §924(c) Conviction

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OPINION AND ORDER In October 2016, Christian McKnight pleaded guilty to, first, participating in a racketeering conspiracy, and second, committing a firearms offense relating to both the racketeering conspiracy and a drug trafficking conspiracy. The second offense was in violation of 18 U.S.C. §924(c)(1)(A) and therefore carried a mandatory consecutive sentence of sixty months’ imprisonment. In March 2017, McKnight was sentenced to a total term of 132 months’ imprisonment. McKnight now moves to vacate his sentence, arguing that his section 924(c) conviction rested on that statute’s since-invalidated “Residual Clause.” While the Supreme Court did invalidate the Residual Clause in United States v. Davis, 139 S. Ct. 2319 (2019), McKnight’s section 924(c) conviction also was predicated on a different prong of section 924(c) for drug trafficking crimes, which remains valid. While McKnight argues that his plea allocution was insufficient to sustain a guilty plea to the drug crime aspect of his section 924(c) conviction, materials in the record, including McKnight’s statements at his plea hearing, provide an adequate factual basis to support a section 924(c) conviction with a drug trafficking predicate. His motion is therefore denied. I. Background McKnight was a member of the Leland Avenue Crew, a violent gang that operated in the vicinity of Leland Avenue in the Bronx. Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”) 21. From at least 2012 through September 2015, members and associates of the Leland Avenue Crew sold cocaine base, commonly known as “crack cocaine,” and often resorted to violence, including shootings and murders, to protect their turf from rival drug dealers. Id..

21-27. One of those rivals, a gang known as the Taylor Avenue Crew, controlled the distribution of crack cocaine in the vicinity of nearby Taylor Avenue. Id.

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