Villanueva v. United States

JON O. NEWMAN, Circuit Judge:

This appeal by the United States presents the narrow issue of whether the offense of violating Connecticut's statute punishing first degree assault, Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53a-59(a)(1), qualifies as a "violent felony" for purposes of enhanced sentencing under the federal Armed Career Criminal Act of 1984 ("ACCA"), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e). That issue turns on whether the *125Connecticut statute, analyzed under the so-called "modified categorical approach," Mathis v. United States , --- U.S. ----, 136 S.Ct. 2243, 2249, 195 L.Ed.2d 604 (2016), has as an element what federal law…