United States v. Dickerson

678 F. App'x 706
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 3, 2017
Docket14-2223
StatusUnpublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 678 F. App'x 706 (United States v. Dickerson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Dickerson, 678 F. App'x 706 (10th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

JEROME A. HOLMES, Circuit Judge

Defendant-Appellant Kelvin Dickerson appeals from the district court’s written judgment sentencing him to 121 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release, and ordering him to pay restitution in the amount of $9,798.60. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, with the exception of Mr. Dickerson’s challenge regarding the restitution amount specified in the written judgment, we affirm Mr. Dickerson’s sentence. As to that restitution amount, we reverse and remand with instructions for the district court to enter an amended judgment ordering restitution in the amount of $8,424.60.

I

During the summer of 2013, Mr. Dickerson robbed seven individuals as they attempted to make deposits for their employers at banks throughout Albuquerque, New Mexico. Applying various amounts of force, Mr. Dickerson obtained money from the possession of each victim and fled the scene in a car driven by his co-defendant, Dominique Dickens. Police apprehended Mr. Dickerson after his seventh robbery, on September 5,2013.

The grand jury returned an eight-count indictment, charging Mr. Dickerson with one count of conspiracy to commit robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) (Count 1), two counts of robbery in violation of § 1951(a) (Counts 2 and 5), and five counts of robbery and aiding and abetting (Counts 3, 4, 6, 7, and 8), in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2 and 1951(a). Mr. Dickerson pleaded guilty to all eight counts.

The presentence investigation report (“PSR”) calculated a recommended sentencing range under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“U.S.S.G.” or “Guidelines”) of 151 to 188 months’ imprisonment and recommended restitution in the amount of $8,424.60, based on its calculation of actual loss to the individual victims and the employers whose deposits were stolen. 1 To calculate the recommended Guidelines range, the PSR created seven sentencing groups. See U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2 (“All counts involving substantially the same harm shall be grouped together into a single Group.”). The PSR created seven sentencing groups based on Dickerson’s charges. Group 1 consisted of Count 1 (conspiracy to commit robbery) and Count 2 (robbery). The remaining six counts were grouped individually—that is, Count 3 became Group 2, Count 4 became Group 3, and so on.

*710 The PSR then calculated the combined offense level for the sentencing groups pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4. The combined offense level is determined by calculating the adjusted offense level for each group and “taking the offense level applicable to the Group with the highest offense level and increasing that offense level by the amount indicated in [§ 3D1.4].” See U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4. The PSR assigned each sentencing group a base offense level of twenty, which is the base offense level for a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951. See U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1. The PSR then applied various sentencing enhancements to each sentencing group, 2 and identified Group 5 as having the highest adjusted offense level at thirty. The PSR then increased that offense level—i.e., thirty—by five levels based on the adjusted offense levels of the other six groups pursuant to § 3D1.4, totaling a combined offense level of thirty-five. Finally, the PSR subtracted three levels from the combined offense level for acceptance of responsibility under § 3E1.1, for a total offense level of thirty-two. Based on the total offense level of thirty-two, and a criminal history category of III, the PSR calculated a Guidelines range of 151 to 188 months’ imprisonment.

At the sentencing hearing, the district court “adopt[ed] the proposed findings set forth in the [PSR] with the exception [of the] two-level enhancement for threat of death” that the PSR had applied to Groups 1, 2, and 3. R., Vol. Ill, at 11 (Sentencing Hr’g Tr., dated Dec. 9, 2014). The court then stated that the Guidelines range was 121 to 151 months’ imprisonment. The court pronounced a sentence of 121 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release, and ordered Mr. Dickerson to pay restitution in the amount of $8,424.60.

The district court entered a written judgment against Mr. Dickerson on December 15, 2014. The written judgment differed from the sentence pronounced from the bench, however, in one material respect: it ordered restitution in the amount of $9,798.60, rather than $8,424.60. The remainder of the judgment reflected the terms orally pronounced at the sentencing hearing: i.e., 121 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release.

Mr. Dickerson filed a timely appeal, challenging the amount of the written restitution order, and the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his prison sentence.

II

Mr. Dickerson first challenges the restitution amount ordered in the written judg *711 ment. At the sentencing hearing, the district court ordered Mr. Dickerson to pay $8,424.60 in restitution, but in its written judgment the district court ordered Mr. Dickerson to pay restitution in the amount of $9,798.60. On appeal, the government concedes that the amount of restitution ordered at the sentencing hearing—that is, $8,424.60—controls. We agree. See United States v. Barwig, 568 F.3d 852, 855 (10th Cir. 2009) (“It is undisputed that ‘an oral pronouncement of sentence from the bench controls over ... written language.’ ” (quoting United States v. Marquez, 337 F.3d 1203, 1207 n.1 (10th Cir. 2003))); accord United States v. Ullmann, 788 F.3d 1260, 1264 (10th Cir. 2015). Accordingly, we reverse and remand to the district court with instructions to enter an amended judgment reflecting the restitution amount pronounced at the sentencing hearing—that is, $8,424.60.

Ill

Mr. Dickerson challenges the procedural and substantive reasonableness of the district court’s 121-month prison sentence. We reject these challenges.

A

“Reasonableness review is a two-step process comprising a procedural and a substantive component.” United States v. Verdin-Garcia, 516 F.3d 884, 895 (10th Cir. 2008). “We ‘must first ensure that the district court committed no significant procedural error....’ If the district court’s decision is ‘procedurally sound,’ we ‘then consider the substantive reasonableness of the sentence imposed.’ ” United States v. Lucero, 747 F.3d 1242, 1246 (10th Cir. 2014) (citation omitted) (quoting Gall v. United States,

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Bluebook (online)
678 F. App'x 706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-dickerson-ca10-2017.