Does Burglary of an RV or Mobile Home Count Under the ACCA?

Burglary of a mobile home, RV, or other vehicle or structure adapted for overnight stays can count as "burglary" under the Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA), the law that sets a 15-year minimum for some repeat offenders caught with guns. The Supreme Court held this unanimously on December 10, 2018, in United States v. Stitt.

Update (October 2026): Since this post was written, the Supreme Court has decided more ACCA cases. In Stokeling v. United States (2019), it held that Florida robbery counts as a "violent felony." In Wooden v. United States (2022), it held that crimes from a single criminal episode count only once. And in Erlinger v. United States (2024), it held that a jury, not a judge, must decide beyond a reasonable doubt whether past crimes happened on different occasions.

What the Armed Career Criminal Act does

Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA)

Congress passed the ACCA in 1984, during the Reagan administration, to impose harsher sentences on repeat offenders caught with guns. It applies to people convicted of being a felon in possession of a gun under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). If the person has three or more earlier convictions for a "violent felony" or "serious drug offense," committed on different occasions, the ACCA requires at least 15 years in prison, and the maximum is life. 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1).

Without the ACCA, the maximum for a § 922(g) offense is 15 years (it was 10 years before a 2022 change in the law), and there is no minimum. 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(8). So the ACCA turns a ceiling into a floor. When this post was written, the ACCA minimum was five years above the 10-year maximum that otherwise applied.

When a state burglary conviction counts

Burglary is listed as a "violent felony" under the ACCA. But not every state burglary conviction counts.

In Taylor v. United States, 495 U.S. 575 (1990), the Supreme Court defined "generic" burglary as an unlawful entry into, or remaining in, a building or other structure with intent to commit a crime. Courts use the "categorical approach," which means they compare the elements of the state law to the generic definition, not what the person actually did. Courts look at the state's definition of burglary at the time of the conviction. If the state law covers more than generic burglary, the conviction may not count.

What happened in United States v. Stitt

Victor Stitt was convicted of being a felon in possession of a gun. His earlier convictions included aggravated burglary under Tennessee law, which covered breaking into a structure or vehicle that has been adapted or is customarily used for overnight accommodation.

Stitt argued that the Tennessee law was broader than generic burglary because it covers vehicles. The Sixth Circuit agreed. The Supreme Court took the case together with a similar Arkansas case, United States v. Sims.

The Supreme Court reversed. It held that ACCA burglary "includes burglary of a structure or vehicle that has been adapted or is customarily used for overnight accommodation." The Court explained that when Congress passed the ACCA, most state burglary laws covered vehicles used for lodging. Breaking into a mobile home or RV creates a similar risk of a violent confrontation.

So Stitt's Tennessee convictions counted, and the 15-year minimum applied. For more on how courts define burglary, see our post on Texas burglary and Mathis.

What Stitt means for ACCA cases

Stitt makes it harder to argue that a state burglary conviction is too broad because it covers mobile homes, RVs, or similar places where people sleep. Many state burglary laws will now count under the ACCA, so defendants facing an ACCA sentence based on burglary have fewer ways to challenge it.

In the author's view at the time, the unanimous decision showed that the justices were not looking to poke fatal holes in the ACCA, or to search for every possible way to strike it down.

Some observers predicted that Stokeling v. United States, an ACCA case about a state's definition of robbery, would be the opening the justices had been waiting for to cut back the ACCA. The author thought the unanimous Stitt decision suggested otherwise, and the Court did rule for the government in that case too. But later cases, especially Wooden and Erlinger, gave defendants new arguments about the "different occasions" requirement.

If you or a family member faces a possible ACCA sentence, get the paperwork for every prior conviction: the charging document, the plea or verdict, and the judgment. Whether a prior counts often turns on exactly which state law and which part of it the conviction was under, and whether the priors happened on different occasions.

Facing a federal sentence? Request a consultation to talk it through with Brandon Sample.