A federal appeals court has overturned the sentence of a Georgia man who pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, ruling that a lower court erred by failing to apply federal kidnapping guidelines to evaluate his conduct.
In a decision issued August 5, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated the 130-month prison sentence handed down to Marcus Ryan Telfair and remanded the case to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia for resentencing.
Telfair’s conviction stemmed from an incident in which federal prosecutors said he dragged a woman out of a house by her hair, pulled her down the street, and struck her with a gun. Telfair subsequently pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm as a convicted felon under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).
During the original sentencing proceedings, the government asked the district court to apply a cross-reference under Section 2K2.1(c) of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. That provision directs courts to calculate penalties using the guidelines for another offense if the firearm was used in connection with that second offense and produces a higher offense level.
The initial presentence investigation report determined that Telfair’s conduct constituted kidnapping under Georgia state law. The report applied the federal kidnapping guideline as the most analogous federal standard, calculating a guideline range of 188 to 235 months in prison. Because the statutory maximum for the firearm charge was 15 years, the report capped the recommended sentence at 180 months.
Telfair objected to the report, arguing that his conduct did not meet the elements of federal kidnapping because it lacked an interstate element and that the cross-reference provision applied only to other federal offenses.
The district court sustained Telfair’s objection. While the district court noted that Telfair “did, in fact, assault the victim in the house, drag her out of the house by her hair, [and] drag her at least two houses down the street,” it concluded there was no direct federal analog to Georgia state kidnapping without an interstate component. The court instead calculated a guideline range of 130 to 162 months and sentenced Telfair to 130 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. The federal government subsequently appealed.
Writing for the three-judge panel, Chief Judge William Pryor stated that the sentencing rules allow state-level crimes to trigger the cross-reference mechanism.
“Plainly, the cross reference in section 2K2.1(c)(1)(A) can apply to state offenses,” Pryor wrote, noting that the guidelines define “another offense” as any federal, state, or local infraction.
Addressing whether federal kidnapping guidelines could serve as an analog for state-level kidnapping, the court determined that both laws target the same core conduct.
“The federal kidnapping guideline is ‘most analogous’ to kidnapping under Georgia law,” Pryor wrote. “Both offenses target the same act—unlawfully abducting another person.”
The panel held that the lack of an interstate element in state offenses does not prevent the federal guideline from being used as a baseline for sentencing logic under federal rules, describing the jurisdictional element as a technical requirement rather than a change in the core physical act.
Circuit Judges Jill Pryor and Andrew Brasher joined in the decision. No new date for Telfair’s resentencing has been set.
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