United States v. Laphonse Young

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided April 29, 2026·No. 25-11678·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 25-11678

Non-Argument Calendar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

LAPHONSE YOUNG, Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 1:09-cr-00029-JB-B-1

Before LUCK, LAGOA, and BLACK, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:

Laphonse Young appeals the district court’s revocation of his term of supervised release. Young argues that (1) the district court lacked jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(i) to revoke his

USCA11 Case: 25-11678 Document: 27-1 Date Filed: 04/29/2026 Page: 2 of 10

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term of supervised release after it expired; (2) the district court abused its discretion by admitting hearsay evidence during the revocation hearing; and (3) the district court erred by failing to provide Young the opportunity to object to a model-search condition for his new term of supervised release. After review, 1 we affirm.

I. DISCUSSION

A. Jurisdiction “A term of supervised release ends on its date of expiration.”

United States v. Murat, 132 F.4th 1347, 1350 (11th Cir. 2025). A district court lacks jurisdiction to revoke a defendant’s term of supervised release once it expires except under certain statutory exceptions . See United States v. Okoko, 365 F.3d 962, 964 (11th Cir. 2004).

Recently, the Supreme Court reviewed a circuit split on the issue of whether district courts can revoke a defendant’s term of supervised release after it expires based on actions taken after the expiration solely because the defendant absconded while under supervision . Rico v. United States, No. 24-1056, 607 U.S. ---, manuscript op. at *3-4 (U.S. Mar. 25, 2026). The Supreme Court held that district courts cannot revoke a defendant’s term of supervised release

1 “We review questions concerning a district court’s subject matter jurisdic-

tion de novo.” United States v. Murat, 132 F.4th 1347, 1349 (11th Cir. 2025). We review a revocation of supervised release and evidentiary issues for abuse of discretion. United States v. Frazier, 26 F.3d 110, 112 (11th Cir. 1994); United States v. Novaton, 271 F.3d 968, 1005 (11th Cir. 2001). “We review de novo whether a district court has given a defendant the required opportunity to object to its factual and legal findings.” United States v. Mosely, 31 F.4th 1332, 1334 (11th Cir. 2022).

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in that way because there was no statutory basis for extending a defendant’s term of supervised release based on abscondment. Id. at *4-12. In reaching its decision, the Supreme Court contrasted the judge-made abscondment rule with statutory provisions that expressly allow district courts to extend a defendant’s term of supervised release and to retain authority to revoke a defendant’s term of supervised release after expiration. Id. at *5-6. One of the statutory provisions the Court cited was § 3583(i), which was not at issue in the case before it. Id. at *6.

Unlike in Rico, in this case the district court’s jurisdiction to revoke Young’s term of supervised release after it expired was based on an explicit statutory provision—§ 3583(i). Section 3583(i) states, The power of the court to revoke a term of supervised release for violation of a condition of supervised release . . . extends beyond the expiration of the term of supervised release for any period reasonably necessary for the adjudication of matters arising before its expiration if, before its expiration, a warrant or summons has been issued on the basis of an allegation of such a violation.

18 U.S.C. § 3583(i). Thus, to revoke a defendant’s term of supervised release under § 3583(i) after the term expired, (1) the revocation must be based on actions that the defendant took during the term of supervised release, (2) the district court must have issued a warrant or summons “on the basis of” those actions during the

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term of supervised release, and (3) the delayed exercise of jurisdiction must be “reasonably necessary.”

It is undisputed that the district court revoked Young’s term of supervised release based on actions that he took while he was still on supervised release. It is also undisputed that the district court issued an arrest warrant on the basis of those actions before Young’s term of supervised release expired.

Young only argues on appeal that the district court lacked jurisdiction under § 3583(i) because (1) the clerk of court signed the arrest warrant, but the district court judge’s signature was required for the warrant to be effective under Fed. R. Crim. P. 4(b), and (2) the government failed to establish that the district court’s delayed exercise of jurisdiction under § 3583(i) was “reasonably necessary .” Young is wrong on both counts.

First, Young is incorrect that the district court judge needed to sign the arrest warrant. In United States v. Moore, we held that Rule 4’s signature requirement does not apply to summonses for purposes of § 3583(i). 443 F.3d 790, 794 n.4 (11th Cir. 2006) (citing United States v. Bernardine, 237 F.3d 1279, 1281 n.1 (11th Cir. 2001)). In that case, like in this one, the clerk of court, not the district court judge, signed a summons that was used to trigger the district court’s jurisdiction under § 3583(i). Id. at 792-93. The defendant primarily argued that the summons did not satisfy § 3583(i) because it was not issued until after the defendant’s term of supervised release expired. Id. at 794. We rejected that argument in the body of the opinion. Id.

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We additionally stated in a footnote that the defendant argued , “the summons does not meet the signature requirement under Fed. R. Crim. P. 4(b).” Id. at 794 n.4. We rejected that argument because it concluded that “Rule 4 does not apply to the present case.” Id. We cited United States v. Bernardine, which stated, “Rule 4 pertains to summons upon complaint and Rule 9 pertains to summons upon indictment or information . . . . No other rule of criminal procedure, relevant statute or case law supports the application of Rules 4 or 9 in the context of a supervised release violation hearing where the court already has supervisory jurisdiction and authority over the defendant.” Bernardine, 237 F.3d at 1281 n.1 (citations omitted).

Moore’s signature holding resolves this case. In Moore, we explicitly held—rejecting an argument that is almost identical to Young’s in this case—that Rule 4(b)’s signature requirement did not apply when the district court was exercising jurisdiction under § 3583(i). Moore, 443 F.3d at 794 n.4. Section 3583(i) does not distinguish between summonses and arrest warrants, so Moore’s holding applies equally here. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(i) (permitting exercise of jurisdiction when “a warrant or summons has been issued”). Therefore, the arrest warrant issued in this case was sufficient to trigger the district court’s jurisdiction under § 3583(i) even though it was only signed by the clerk of court at the direction of the court. See also United States v. Hondras, 296 F.3d 601, 602-03 (7th Cir. 2002) (holding that district court judge did not need to sign arrest warrant for it to trigger jurisdiction under § 3583(i)); United States v. Vallee, 677 F.3d 1263, 1265-66 (9th Cir. 2012) (agreeing with Hondras).

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