CHARLES CITY – A career criminal from Charles City suspected of shooting a Nashua man as he lay in bed and then later sent to prison for life had that penalty overturned in court.
Randy Patrie had been a suspect in the murder of 70-year-old Carl Kenneth Gallmeyer, who was found dead with a gunshot wound to his head inside his residence located at 1091 240 Street in Nashua, Iowa, in 2012. The Iowa Medical Examiner had ruled the death a homicide. Investigators later found items belonging to Gallmeyer at Patrie’s home. They also found a sawed-off shotgun that was allegedly used to kill Gallmeyer.
Patrie pleaded guilty to possession of firearms by a felon as an armed career criminal, and admitted that he burglarized a federally licensed firearms dealer in rural Floyd, Iowa, stealing approximately 20 firearms. On July 4, 2013, officers searched Patrie’s house in Charles City, and found him in possession of all of the stolen firearms, along with a number of other firearms, including two sawed-off shotguns.
In court, federal judge Linda Reade said “Mr. Gallmeyer was the most innocent of victims. He posed no threat to Patrie at any time. Mr. Gallmeyer was an obstacle to Randy Patrie. There was no reason for this murder. He could have burglarized the home while he was out like he did the others.”
Based on these findings, Judge Reade imposed the sentence of life imprisonment.
The United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit upheld the sentence Monday, July 27, 2015, saying “we reject all of Patrie’s arguments”.
However, Patrie appealed again in August of 2016 to the Eighth District U.S. Court of Appeals, contending that the district court (1) erred in applying the Sentencing Guidelines’ cross reference for first-degree murder to his felon in possession charge, (2) erred in determining he was an armed career criminal under the Armed Career Criminal Act, and (3) engaged in impermissible judicial fact- finding when determining that he was an armed career criminal.
The court did affirmed the sentence, but with respect to the district court’s armed career criminal determination, it cited the decision in United States v. Mathis, 786 F.3d 1068 (8th Cir. 2015). “The United States Supreme Court granted Patrie’s petition for writ of certiorari, vacated our judgment and remanded the case to us for further consideration in light of its decision in Mathis v. United States, in which the Supreme Court held that “[b]ecause the elements of Iowa’s burglary law are broader than those of generic burglary, Mathis’s convictions under that law cannot give rise to an ACCA sentence.”
In a finding released on October 14, that court found that in a supplemental briefing Patrie’s defense and prosecutors agree that Patrie is not subject to designation as an armed career criminal under the ACCA. Patrie contends that this case should be remanded to the district court for resentencing, including consideration of the maximum authorized term of supervised release. The government asserts that remand is unnecessary and that this “Court should order [Patrie] to be sentenced to the now-applicable statutory maximum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment.”
After review, it was concluded by the court that the case be remanded for resentencing.
Patrie’s sentence was vacated, and the case is remanded to the district court for resentencing.
