United States v. Colon-de Jesus

831 F.3d 39, 2016 WL 4056033
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJuly 29, 2016
Docket15-1962P
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 831 F.3d 39 (United States v. Colon-de Jesus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Colon-de Jesus, 831 F.3d 39, 2016 WL 4056033 (1st Cir. 2016).

Opinion

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-appellant José Colón de Je-sús challenges both the substantive reasonableness of his upwardly variant sentence and a financial disclosure condition incident to his supervised release term. 1 After careful consideration, we summarily affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

Because this appeal follows a guilty plea, we draw the facts from the non-binding plea agreement (the Agreement), the undisputed portions of the presentence investigation report (the PSI Report), and the transcript of the disposition hearing. See United States v. Bermúdez-Meléndez, 827 *42 F.3d 160, 162, 2016 WL 3525423 (1st Cir. 2016) [No. 14-2209]. On July 28, 2013, Puerto Rico police officers observed an individual, later identified as the appellant, riding a horse toward them at high speed, with a firearm in his waistband. After he fell from his steed, the officers took him into custody and confiscated the firearm, which proved to be loaded with 16 rounds of ammunition. Upon a search incident to his arrest, the officers discovered two additional 15-round magazines (fully loaded). Moreover, the appellant acknowledged that the seized firearm had been modified to fire automatically as a machinegun.

In due season, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment. Count 1 charged the appellant with knowingly possessing a firearm and ammunition after having been convicted of a felony. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2). Count 2 charged the appellant with knowingly possessing a machinegun. See id. § 922(o)(l). After initially maintaining his innocence, the appellant entered into the Agreement and tendered a guilty plea to count 1.

Pertinently, the Agreement memorialized the parties’ joint recommendation that the appellant should be sentenced near the middle of the applicable guideline sentencing range (GSR). The district court subsequently accepted the appellant’s plea to count l. 2

At sentencing, the court — without objection — adopted the calculations adumbrated in the PSI Report, which resulted in a GSR of 30-37 months (based on a total offense level of 17 and a criminal history category of III). Despite the parties’ joint recommendation for a mid-range guideline sentence, the court varied upward and imposed a 60-month term of immurement, to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. This timely appeal followed.

II. ANALYSIS

In this venue, the appellant advances two assignments of error. First, he asserts that his 60-month incarcerative sentence, though only one-half the statutory maximum sentence, see id. § 924(a)(2), is substantively unreasonable. Second, he asserts that the district court erred in attaching a financial disclosure condition to his supervised release term. We discuss each assignment of error in turn.

A. The Length of the Sentence.

The appellant challenges his sentence as substantively unreasonable, suggesting that the mid-range guideline sentence limned in the Agreement would have been sufficient. Because the appellant voiced this objection at the disposition hearing, our review is for abuse of discretion. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007).

When mulling a challenge to the substantive reasonableness of a sentence, considerable deference is due to the district court’s judgment. See id.; United States v. Clogston, 662 F.3d 588, 593 (1st Cir. 2011). This respectful approach recognizes that even though “[a] sentencing court is under a mandate to consider a myriad of relevant factors, ... the weighting of those factors is largely within the court’s informed discretion.” Clogston, 662 F.3d at 593. It follows that even where — as in this case — the district court imposes a variant sentence, a reviewing court must afford “due deference to the district court’s decision that the § 3553(a) factors, on a whole, justify the extent of the variance.” Gall, 552 U.S. at 51, 128 S.Ct. 586.

*43 Reasonableness is itself “a protean concept.” United States v. Martin, 520 F.3d 87, 92 (1st Cir. 2008). In the last analysis, a sentence will withstand a challenge to its substantive reasonableness as long as it rests on “a plausible sentencing rationale” and reflects “a defensible result.” Id. at 96. Applying this yardstick, we will vacate the sentence “if — and only if— the sentencing court’s ultimate determination falls outside the expansive boundaries of [the] universe” of reasonable sentences. Id. at 92.

Here, the district court articulated a plausible sentencing rationale. It took pains to note its consideration of the factors made relevant by 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and commented upon specific factors that applied to the appellant’s situation. The court also considered the appellant’s prior criminal history (which was significant and included convictions for similar offenses). Describing that history, the court concluded that the appellant “knew clearly the consequences [of weapons violations] and still ... didn’t learn the lesson.”

After conducting this assessment, the court explicitly determined that the guideline range did not “fully reflect the seriousness of the offense, the risk and harm to society, nor what has happened here.” Stressing the need for deterrence, the court concluded that an appropriate sentence demanded an upward variance.

The resultant sentence surpassed the top of the GSR by 23 months. Such a sentence is admittedly stern. But a stern sentence may still fall within the universe of reasonable sentences, though we have recognized that the greater the extent of a variance, “the more compelling the sentencing court’s justification must be.” United States v. Del Valle-Rodríguez, 761 F.3d 171, 177 (1st Cir. 2014).

Here, the district court adequately justified the sentence. As the court noted, there were aggravating factors, including the appellant’s recidivism, the especially menacing nature of the firearm in question (which to the appellant’s knowledge had been deliberately modified to function as a machinegun), and the extra magazines that the appellant carried. Equally as.important, the court tied the upward variance to specific section 3553(a) factors. See United States v. Díaz-Arroyo, 797 F.3d 125, 130 (1st Cir. 2015); United States v. Scherrer, 444 F.3d 91, 92-93 (1st Cir. 2006) (en banc). On balance, we think that the court’s sentencing rationale is plausible, that the end result (a 60-month sentence) is defensible, and that, therefore, the sentence is within the broad compass of the court’s discretion.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
831 F.3d 39, 2016 WL 4056033, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-colon-de-jesus-ca1-2016.