United States v. Silva, 981 F.3d 794 (10th Cir. Nov. 24, 2020)

On appeal from his sentencing for possession of a firearm by a restricted person, Silva challenged the trial court’s reliance on a twelve-year-old assault conviction to treat him as a “career offender” and substantially enhance his sentence.  On plain-error review, the Tenth Circuit reversed and remanded for resentencing, holding that the assault conviction could not form the basis of a “career offender” sentencing enhancement because it was too old to independently merit consideration under the federal sentencing guidelines.