UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.                                                                    No. 95-5628

GREGORY TATES, a/k/a Chilly,
Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore.
Walter E. Black, Jr., Senior District Judge.
(CR-95-33-B)

Submitted: August 22, 1996

Decided: September 12, 1996

Before RUSSELL, HALL, and WILLIAMS, Circuit Judges.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

James K. Bredar, Federal Public Defender, Beth M. Farber, Assistant
Federal Public Defender, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant.
Lynne A. Battaglia, United States Attorney, Joseph L. Evans, Assis-
tant United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

_________________________________________________________________

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).
OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Gregory Tates pled guilty to bank robbery, 18 U.S.C.A. § 2113(a)
(West Supp. 1996), armed bank robbery, 18 U.S.C.A.§ 2113(d)
(West Supp. 1996), and use of a firearm during a crime of violence,
18 U.S.C.A. § 924(c) (West Supp. 1996). He appeals his 270-month
sentence, arguing that the district court erred in finding that he was
a career offender. United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines
Manual § 4B1.1 (Nov. 1994). We affirm.

Tates had committed two prior bank robberies, one on December
8, 1980, and one on April 6, 1981. He was sentenced for both
offenses at the same time and received concurrent sentences. Because
there was no formal order of consolidation, the district court treated
these cases as unrelated and counted them separately. See USSG
§ 4A1.2(a)(2), comment. (n.3). In doing so, the court followed our
decision in United States v. Allen, 50 F.3d 294 (4th Cir.), cert. denied,
___ U.S. ___, 63 U.S.L.W. 3907 (U.S. June 26, 1995) (No. 94-9414).
Allen holds that, absent a formal order of consolidation, factually
unrelated cases which are sentenced together are not related cases
under the sentencing guidelines. Under Allen, Tates was properly sen-
tenced as a career offender.

Tates contends on appeal the Allen was wrongly decided and urges
us to reconsider its holding. Even if we were inclined to do so, a panel
cannot overrule the decision of a prior panel in this circuit. Brubaker
v. City of Richmond, 943 F.2d 1363, 1381-82 (4th Cir. 1991). We
therefore affirm the sentence. The government's motion to submit the
case on the briefs is granted because the facts and legal contentions
are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argu-
ment would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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