United States v. Jason Henry Davis

697 F. App'x 999
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 10, 2017
Docket16-15471 Non-Argument Calendar
StatusUnpublished

This text of 697 F. App'x 999 (United States v. Jason Henry Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Jason Henry Davis, 697 F. App'x 999 (11th Cir. 2017).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

After pleading guilty, Jason Davis appeals his 96-month total sentence for eight counts of wire fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1343 (Counts 1-8); one count of access device fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(2) (Count 9); eleven counts of aggravated identity theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A (Counts 10-21); and two counts of making false statements, ■ . in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2) (Counts 22-23), all arising from his unlawful receipt of his deceased father’s pension and Social Security benefits. On appeal, Davis argues that his sentence is procedurally and substantively unreasonable. After review, we affirm.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Offense Conduct

Beginning in 2005, defendant Jason Davis lived with his divorced parents, Sheila Ann Davis and Henry T. Davis, Jr., in a trailer in Florida. Henry Davis, the father, was retired, and, by 2006, Henry Davis was receiving both pension and Social Security benefits. In March 2008, the endorsement signature for Henry Davis on his cashed benefits checks changed. In October 2008, a bank account was opened online in Henry Davis’s name with no in-person verification. Beginning in March 2009 and February 2011, respectively, Henry Davis’s Social Security and pension benefits were wire transferred and direct deposited into this bank' account. While Ann Davis, the mother, died of cancer in 2011, Henry Davis seemingly continued to collect pension and Social Security benefits until fall 2014.

In April 2013, renters of the Davises’ trailer were planting tomatoes in the backyard and discovered skeletal remains, ultimately determined to be those of Henry Davis, the defendant’s father. Officials confirmed that Henry Davis’s death had occurred many years earlier, that the cause of death was strangulation, and that the manner of death was homicide. During their ensuing investigation, law enforcement interviewed defendant Jason Davis four times. The first three times, Jason Davis denied any knowledge of his father’s whereabouts or whose remains were found in the trailer’s backyard.

During the fourth interview, defendant Jason Davis admitted he was present when his mother violently murdered his father and then buried him in the backyard. Defendant Davis said that he watched his mother strike his father with a crow bar and then strangle him with a VCR cord. Defendant Davis also admitted that after the murder he painted over the blood spatter inside the trailer.

Defendant Davis did not inform the Social Security Administration, his father’s former employer, the Housing Authority of Gloucester County in New Jersey, or the New Jersey Public Employees’ Retirement System of his father’s death. As part of his plea, Defendant Davis admitted that after *1001 his father’s murder, he used his father’s identity to collect and use his father’s Social Security and pension benefits, first by cashing benefits checks made out to his father and later by using a debit card linked to the bank account in his father’s name. In total, defendant Davis received more than $118,000 in his father’s Social Security and pension benefits, and an additional $11,081 as a result of false statements he made in his application for food assistance benefits.

B. Presentence Investigation Report

Defendant Jason Davis’s presentence investigation report (“PSI”) separately grouped the 12 aggravated identity theft counts (Counts 10-21) and stated that the guidelines sentence for these counts was two years consecutive to any other prison term, as required by statute. See 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1), (b)(2); U.S.S.G. § 2B1.6(a).

The PSI grouped the remaining counts (Counts 1-9, 22, 23) together pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2D1.2(d), and: (1) assigned a base offense level of 7, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(a); (2) applied an 8-level upward adjustment because the loss involved was more than $95,000 but less than $150,000, pursuant to § 2B1.1(b)(1)(E); and (3) applied a 2-level downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, pursuant to U.S'.S.G. § 3E1.1(a). With a total offense level of 13 and a criminal history of III, the PSI calculated an advisory guidelines range of 18 to 24 months’ imprisonment for these counts. The PSI noted that the statutory maximum prison terms for Counts 1 through 8 was twenty years, for Count 9 was ten years, and for Counts 22 and 23 was five years.

The government objected to the PSI’s failure to recommend an upward departure under, inter aha, U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0(a)(2), because Defendant Jason Davis’s knowledge of his father’s murder constituted circumstances of a kind not adequately taken into consideration in determining the guidelines range. The government sought an upward departure or alternatively an upward variance based on the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors. Defendant Davis did not file written objections to the PSI’s guidelines calculations.

C. Sentencing Hearing

At the sentencing hearing, the district court confirmed that defendant Jason Davis did not have any objections to the PSI. In support of its request for an upward departure or variance, the government presented testimony from John Cogburn, the homicide detective who investigated Henry Davis’s death and interviewed defendant Davis. According to Detective Cogburn, he first interviewed defendant Davis on the day the remains were discovered, and Davis denied any knowledge of them. Defendant Davis claimed he did not know his father’s whereabouts and that his mother had kicked his father out of the trailer. Detective Cogburn reviewed photographs of the trailer' and the site where Henry Davis’s body was buried and stated that Henry Davis was found in a four-square-foot hole, wrapped in' a green blanket, and with an electrical cord around his neck, though law enforcement never’ disclosed these details to defendant Jason Davis. The cause of death was strangulation and blunt force trauma, and investigators determined that the death occurred sometime in early 2008. Detective Cogburn explained that blood evidence discovered on the ceiling of the trailer matched Henry Davis’s DNA and that defendant Jason Davis later admitted to painting over blood splatter on the wall.

During Detective Cogburn’s second and third interviews, defendant Jason Davis continued to deny any knowledge of his *1002 father’s death. During the fourth interview—a year and a half after the body was discovered—Detective Cogburn confronted defendant Davis with evidence that had been collected regarding his father’s homicide and benefits, and Davis’s story changed. This time, defendant Davis said that his mother hit his father once in the head with a crowbar and that he heard a “thud,” but Detective Cogburn testified that blood spatter evidence indicated multiple blows.

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Bluebook (online)
697 F. App'x 999, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jason-henry-davis-ca11-2017.