United States v. Cassandra Hapip

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 23-3006

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United States of America

Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Cassandra Hope Hapip

Defendant - Appellant

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Appeal from United States District Court for the District of North Dakota

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Submitted: March 11, 2024 Filed: May 9, 2024

[Unpublished]

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Before GRUENDER, SHEPHERD, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

In 2021, Cassandra Hope Hapip served time in prison after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute controlled substances in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. After serving her sentence, Hapip

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violated the terms of her supervised release. The district court 1 sentenced Hapip to twelve months of imprisonment to be followed by a two-year term of supervised release. Hapip appealed and argued the district court procedurally erred and imposed a substantively unreasonable sentence. During the pendency of her appeal, Hapip was released from prison. Because she only challenged her custodial sentence on appeal, there is no longer a case or controversy. See Owen v. United States, 930 F.3d 989, 990 (8th Cir. 2019) (“The mere fact that [a defendant] is serving an unexpired, unchallenged term of supervised release does not sustain an actual controversy.”). Thus, we dismiss the appeal as moot.

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1 The Honorable Daniel M. Traynor, United States District Judge for the District of North Dakota.