United States v. Horace Taylor

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• Decided: March 3, 2025
• Docket: 24-6370
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

USCA4 Appeal: 24-6370 Doc: 14 Filed: 03/03/2025 Pg: 1 of 3

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 24-6370

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

HORACE ANTONIO TAYLOR, a/k/a Bloody Horace,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Columbia. Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., Senior District Judge. (3:13-cr-01036-JFA-1)

Submitted: February 24, 2025 Decided: March 3, 2025

Before HARRIS and BERNER, Circuit Judges, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Horace Antonio Taylor, Appellant Pro Se.

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PER CURIAM:

Horace Antonio Taylor appeals the district court’s order denying his motion for a

sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) based on Amendment 821 to the

Sentencing Guidelines. Pursuant to § 3582(c)(2), a district court may reduce “a defendant’s

term of imprisonment to give the defendant the benefit of later enacted adjustments to the

judgments reflected in the Guidelines.” United States v. Peters, 843 F.3d 572, 574 (4th

Cir. 2016). “To decide whether to reduce a defendant’s sentence under § 3582(c)(2), courts

conduct a two-step inquiry.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). First, the court

determines whether the defendant is eligible for a reduction: “Section 3582(c)(2) permits

a reduction only if (1) the defendant’s term of imprisonment was based on a sentencing

range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing Commission, and (2) the

reduction is consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing

Commission.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). Second, the court may grant a

reduction if it is consistent with the applicable 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. Id. “The

ultimate decision whether to reduce a sentence and to what extent is committed to the

district court’s discretion.” Id. (cleaned up).

Here, the district court found that Amendment 821, which lowered or eliminated

status points in calculating criminal history points, reduced Taylor’s criminal history

category and his advisory Guidelines range. The court therefore found that Taylor was

eligible for a sentence reduction. The court declined to reduce Taylor’s sentence, however,

based on the § 3553(a) factors. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its

discretion by denying Taylor’s motion. Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s order.

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We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are

adequately addressed in the materials before this court and argument would not aid in the

decisional process.

AFFIRMED