United States v. Malcolm Hoyle

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 6, 2025
Docket23-3978
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Malcolm Hoyle (United States v. Malcolm Hoyle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Malcolm Hoyle, (6th Cir. 2025).

Opinion

RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b) File Name: 25a0210p.06

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ┐ Plaintiff-Appellee, │ │ > Nos. 23-3977/3978 v. │ │ │ MALCOLM L. HOYLE, │ Defendant-Appellant. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Cleveland. Nos. 14-cr-00248; 22-cr-00209—J. Philip Calabrese, District Judge.

Decided and Filed: August 6, 2025

Before: CLAY, WHITE, and DAVIS, Circuit Judges. _________________

COUNSEL

ON BRIEF: Alex Thomason, KERRICK BACHERT, PSC, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for Appellant. Jennifer J. King, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellee. _________________

OPINION _________________

DAVIS, Circuit Judge. Malcolm Hoyle pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm and admitted that the conduct underlying that offense was a violation of a condition of his supervised release. In a joint sentencing hearing that covered both the substantive felon-in- possession charge and the follow-on supervised-release violation, the district court imposed 96 months’ imprisonment for the felon-in-possession offense and 24 months for the supervised- release violation, to be served consecutively. Hoyle claims three errors. First, he contends that Nos. 23-3977/3978 United States v. Hoyle Page 2

he never knowingly and voluntarily waived his right to a revocation hearing for the supervised- release violation, so we should remand the case for such a hearing. Second, he argues that the district court erroneously applied the sentencing factors delineated in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) during his sentencing on the violation, and this misapplication of the factors led to a procedurally unreasonable sentence. Third, he asserts that his sentence on the substantive offense is also procedurally unreasonable, because the district court improperly calculated his sentencing guidelines when it erroneously gave career-offender treatment to two of his prior convictions. His first and third claims of error lack merit. But because the district court clearly considered inapplicable statutory factors in fashioning Hoyle’s sentence for the supervised-release violation, we AFFIRM IN PART, REVERSE IN PART, and REMAND for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

On December 31, 2021, Hoyle was released from custody and began a term of supervised release after completing a 96-month prison sentence for a 2015 conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. But less than two months after his release, on February 10, 2022, police responded to a complaint that Hoyle was threatening someone with a gun. When police arrived at the home where the incident reportedly occurred, the homeowner informed them that Hoyle was in the house with a firearm. After obtaining consent to search, officers located a Glock 19 pistol between a mattress and a box spring in one of the bedrooms. Police obtained additional eyewitness confirmation that Malcolm Hoyle was the person with the firearm, and they arrested Hoyle for possessing a Glock 19 pistol with an extended magazine.

During a post-Miranda interview, Hoyle admitted that he possessed the firearm and that he accidentally pointed it at someone. Officers also reviewed video surveillance from the night of the incident, which showed Hoyle holding and pointing what looked like a firearm at a car outside of the home where he was arrested. Based on these facts, Hoyle was charged in state court for the offense of possessing weapons under disability—a third-degree felony. But later, a federal grand jury indicted Hoyle for being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and the state charge was dismissed. The terms of Hoyle’s supervised release from his 2015 conviction barred Hoyle from committing a new crime, so the probation Nos. 23-3977/3978 United States v. Hoyle Page 3

department alerted the district court in that case to this potential violation after the state charges were filed, and obtained a warrant to bring Hoyle in for a violation hearing.

Hoyle appeared for a combined detention hearing and preliminary hearing, covering both his supervised-release violation for committing a new crime and the substantive § 922(g)(1) charge, to determine whether there was probable cause for each. As explained by the magistrate judge, “the evidentiary presentation [would] be the same for both” because the offense and the violation were “essentially identical.” (Prelim. Hr’g, R. 54, PageID 394). Prior to the presentation of evidence, the magistrate judge and the government collectively informed Hoyle of the nature of the alleged supervised-release violation and the penalties for both the substantive offense and the violation. During the hearing, the investigating agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (“ATF”) testified, among other things, that Hoyle “admitted to having the gun.” (Id. at PageID 407). The magistrate judge found that the evidence established probable cause that Hoyle committed a new crime—felon in possession of a firearm. And this finding applied to both cases.

Subsequently, Hoyle filed an unopposed motion to transfer his supervised-release case to the same judge handling the substantive offense. The motion explained that the “the violation conduct is the new case,” and further advised that Hoyle would be “filing a motion of intent to plead on his new case and would like sentencing for both his SRV and the new case to be handled at the same time.” (Mot. to Transfer, No. 14-CR-00248, R. 57, PageID 389). The motion was denied as moot one day later in a bench order in which the court explained that the receiving judge “previously agreed to conduct the supervised release violation hearing when he conducts the sentencing hearing” on the substantive offense. (Ct. Dkt., United States v. Hoyle, No. 14-CR-00248, (N.D. Ohio Apr. 27, 2023)).

The substantive offense and the violation proceeded along roughly parallel tracks, except that Hoyle pleaded guilty to the substantive offense separately, before his next appearance on the supervised-release violation. Indeed, he appeared twice for plea hearings scheduled in his § 922(g)(1) case. During the first hearing, the district court conducted a Rule 11 colloquy, during which the court informed Hoyle that a guilty plea would waive his “important constitutional Nos. 23-3977/3978 United States v. Hoyle Page 4

rights.” (Plea Hr’g, R. 56, PageID 450). The district court also advised Hoyle that a guilty plea might affect his federal supervised release. Specifically, the district court queried:

[D]o you understand that by pleading guilty in this case, you may be found to be in violation of your supervision in that other federal case that you have and face additional penalties, including time in prison, which may run consecutive to any time in this case?

(Id. at 458). Hoyle subsequently expressed reservations about his plea, telling the court that he was only “pleading guilty because [he] just want[ed] to get it over with.” (Id. at 462). Hoyle’s ambivalence led the district court to continue the hearing until a later date to ensure the plea was voluntary.

Hoyle returned to court two weeks later for a change-of-plea hearing. During this second hearing, the court again addressed the supervised-release violation in relation to the substantive felon-in-possession charge.

[The Court]: Let me ask you this Mr.

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United States v. Malcolm Hoyle, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-malcolm-hoyle-ca6-2025.