Opinion
No. 17-2758
07-11-2018
United States of America Plaintiff - Appellee v. Vernon Montrell Webster, also known as Webster Connell Spunky, Jr., also known as Tracy Connell Webster, Jr. Defendant - Appellant
Appeal from United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Waterloo [Unpublished] Before LOKEN, GRUENDER, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM.
Vernon Webster pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, see 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and he received an enhanced sentence pursuant to the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"), see id. § 924(e). Webster now appeals his sentence, arguing that the district court erred in concluding that his three prior Wisconsin convictions for burglary of a building or dwelling qualify as violent felonies under the ACCA. See Wisc. Stat. § 943.10(1)(a), (2)(a) (1978). Before the district court, however, Webster acknowledged the controlling authority of United States v. Lamb, in which we held that an identical burglary conviction qualified as a violent felony. See 847 F.3d 928, 930 (8th Cir. 2017), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 1438 (2018). On appeal, Webster argues that Lamb was wrongly decided and that it should be overruled. However, "[i]t is a cardinal rule in our circuit that one panel is bound by the decision of a prior panel." See United States v. Nelson, 589 F.3d 924, 925 (8th Cir. 2009) (per curiam). Thus, in light of our decision in Lamb, we conclude that the district court did not err in sentencing Webster as an armed career criminal.
The Honorable Linda R. Reade, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa. --------
Accordingly, we affirm Webster's sentence.