Criminal Law-Felon in Possession of Firearm-ACCA Enhancement-Predicate Offenses

Staff Report//February 11, 2026//

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Defendant appealed the sentence imposed following his guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm. Defendant challenged the district court’s imposition of an ACCA enhancement, arguing that his prior Arkansas convictions for terroristic threatening, residential burglary, aggravated assault and battery were not violent felonies, and that his indictment should have identified which of his felonies would be considered predicate offenses. Defendant further argued that a jury should have decided whether his predicate offenses occurred on different occasions from one another.

Where the court had previously ruled the Arkansas offenses were violent offenses, there was no error in applying the ACCA enhancement where defendant was not entitled to prior notice of the specific predicate offenses and where the district court could determine the timing of those offenses.

Judgment is affirmed.

U.S. v. Venson (MLW No. 84326/Case No. 24-3092 – 3 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, per curiam) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Arkansas, Baker, J.