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The Honorable Tanya Walton Pratt, District Judge for the



United States District Court for the Southern District ofIndiana, is sitting by designation.

In the

United States Court of Appeals

For the Seventh Circuit

No. 11-2340U

NITED

S

TATES OF

A

MERICA

,

Plaintiff-Appellee

,

v.

S

TEVEN

J.

N

IGG

,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.No. 10-CR-273

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William C. Griesbach

,

Judge.

A

RGUED

D

ECEMBER

1,

2011

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D

ECIDED

J

ANUARY

31,

2012

Before E

ASTERBROOK

,

Chief Judge

, C

UDAHY

,

Circuit Judge

, and P

RATT

,

District Judge

.



P

RATT

,

District Judge

. Under the Armed CareerCriminal Act (“ACCA”), any person convicted of beinga felon in possession of a firearm who has “three

Case: 11-2340 Document: 23 Filed: 01/31/2012 Pages: 19

2No. 11-2340previous convictions . . . for a violent felony . . . committedon occasions different from one another” is subject toa mandatory minimum prison term of fifteen years. 18U.S.C. § 924(e)(1). On June 6, 2011, the district judge inthis case sentenced Steven J. Nigg

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who has threeprior felony armed robbery convictions, all of whichstem from a crime spree that occurred more than thirty-five years ago

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to the mandatory minimum sentenceunder the ACCA, to be followed by three years of super-vised release.

See

18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924(e)(1).Months prior to being sentenced, Nigg pled guilty tothe charge of possession of a firearm by a felon, butreserved the right to challenge his status as an ArmedCareer Criminal (“ACC”). Initially, the district judgeexpressed misgivings about the fairness of a fifteen-year sentence, but nonetheless found that Nigg qualifiedas an ACC. On appeal, Nigg raises a wide variety ofarguments challenging his sentence. For the followingreasons, we affirm the sentence imposed by the district judge.

I. Background

In November 1976, at the age of twenty-one, Nigg andhis cohort, Dennis Oberheim, embarked on an extensiveArizona crime spree which included at least three armedrobberies. On November 3, 1976, Nigg and Oberheimrobbed a motel clerk at gunpoint and stole $372.75.The next day, the men robbed two convenience storeclerks at gunpoint, making off with $100.00. OnNovember 8, 1976, the duo robbed a gas station, taking a


No. 11-23403pair of gloves, a pack of Kool cigarettes, and $197.72.On March 9, 1977, roughly four months later, Nigg wasconvicted of three counts of armed robbery with a gunin Maricopa County, Arizona. He received a concurrentsentence of fifteen to thirty years in prison on eacharmed robbery count, and additional charges were dis-missed as part of a plea agreement.Following his release from prison in 1990, Niggwalked a more straight and narrow path. He moved toWisconsin, where he cared for his father’s ailing wifeuntil she died. Following her death, Nigg continued tolive with his father, until he remarried. Nigg also con-tributed to his community. Prior to sentencing, thedistrict judge received “numerous letters of supporttestifying to Nigg’s kind and generous character, hiswillingness to help neighbors, and his involvement incommunity activities, notably marital arts classes foryouth and annual appearances as a volunteer SantaClaus and Easter Bunny.” But, even after his release,Nigg’s behavior was less than saintly. Specifically, between 1990 and his father’s death in 2009, Niggreceived two misdemeanor convictions which resultedin fines

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criminal damage to property in 1998 and ob-structing an officer in 2003. Nigg also failed to pay aseries of tax warrants filed by the State of Wisconsin.In 2009, however, Nigg’s life took a sharp turn for theworse. His father passed away, and he became executorof the estate. In a somewhat cruel twist of fate, theestate included over 120 firearms. Nigg’s stepmothersoon became suspicious that Nigg was selling firearms
