United States v. Brock Cochran

── United States v. Brock Cochran ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Date: April 14, 2026 Category: General U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT No. 24-2695 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. BROCK COCHRAN, Appellant _____________________________ Appeal from the U.S. District Court, W.D. Pa. Judge Robert J. Colville, No. 2:21-cr-00306-001 Before: RESTREPO, MCKEE, and AMBRO, Circuit Judges Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on Nov. 14, 2025 Decided Apr. 14, 2026 _____________________________ NONPRECEDENTIAL OPINION* RESTREPO, Circuit Judge. Brock Cochran appeals his judgment of sentence, claiming that the District Court erroneously designated him a career offender under United States Sentencing Guidelines § 4B1.1. For the following reasons, we will affirm. I. On December 21, 2023, Cochran pleaded guilty to attempted possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B)(ii) and possession with intent to distribute a quantity of a mixture and * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and, under I.O.P. 5.7, is not binding precedent. substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(C). The United States Probation Office prepared a Presentence Report that designated Cochran a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1. Cochran objected to the career offender designation, arguing that his state conviction for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon under 18 Pa. C.S. § 2702(a)(4) was not a “crime of violence” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a).1 After briefing, the District Court overruled the objection and upheld the career offender designation. On October 30, 2024, Cochran was sentenced to 105 months in prison and four years of supervised release. Cochran timely appealed. He contends, as he did below, that his aggravated assault conviction cannot constitute a “crime of violence” as defined in U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a) because the conviction was predicated on a theory of accomplice liability. II.2 We exercise plenary review when considering whether a prior conviction constitutes a crime of violence for purposes of the career offender guideline. United States v. Brown, 765 F.3d 185, 188 (3d Cir. 2014). A. Under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a), a defendant is a “career offender” if “(1) [he] was at least eighteen years old at the time [he] committed the instant offense of conviction; (2) 1 Cochran also argued that his 2013 conviction for possession with intent to deliver cocaine was not a “controlled substance offense” under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2. He does not raise this issue on appeal. 2 The District Court had subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231, and we have appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742. 2 the instant offense . . . is a felony that is either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense; and (3) [he] has at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a controlled substance offense.” U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a). Section 4B1.2(a) defines “crime of violence” as any federal or state offense “punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year, that . . . has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another.”3 U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a)(1). This clause is known as the “elements clause.”4 United States v. Ramos, 892 F.3d 599, 605 (3d Cir. 2018).