United States v. Paul E. Senat

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Decided: March 23, 2026
• Docket: 25-11979
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 25-11979 Document: 25-1 Date Filed: 03/23/2026 Page: 1 of 3

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit ____________________ No. 25-11979 Non-Argument Calendar ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus

PAUL E. SENAT, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 9:19-cr-80024-RAR-1 ____________________

Before JORDAN, ROSENBAUM, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: Paul E. Senat, proceeding pro se, appeals from the district court’s July 31, 2023, order denying his motion for compassionate release under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(1)(A). The government filed a USCA11 Case: 25-11979 Document: 25-1 Date Filed: 03/23/2026 Page: 2 of 3

2 Opinion of the Court 25-11979

motion to dismiss Senat’s appeal as untimely. Senat did not re- spond. The deadline to file the notice of appeal was August 14, 2023. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A)(i) (providing that, in criminal cases, a defendant must file a notice of appeal within 14 days after the entry of the order or judgment being appealed); United States v. Fair, 326 F.3d 1317, 1318 (11th Cir. 2003) (explaining that sentence reduction motions are “criminal in nature”). Under the prison mailbox rule, the earliest that Senat’s notice could be deemed filed is May 25, 2025, the date that he signed it. 1 See Fed. R. App. P. 4(c)(1) (describ- ing the prison mailbox rule); Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 276 (1988) (explaining that, under the rule, a notice of appeal is deemed filed on the date that the prisoner delivered it to prison authorities); Jeffries v. United States, 748 F.3d 1310, 1314 (11th Cir. 2014) (explain- ing that, absent evidence to the contrary, we assume that a prisoner delivered his notice on the date that he signed it). The notice is thus untimely to appeal from the July 31, 2023, order. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A)(i). The notice is also deemed filed more than 30 days after the August 14 deadline, so Senat is not eligible for an extension of time. See Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(4) (provid- ing that district courts can “extend the time to file a notice of appeal

1 It is unclear when Senat’s notice is deemed filed under the prison mailbox

rule because he dated it May 25, 2025, and the envelope in which it was mailed is stamped as received by prison officials for mailing on June 2, 2025. The eight-day difference, however, is not dispositive, as Senat’s notice is untimely to appeal the district court’s July 31, 2023, order when deemed filed on either date. USCA11 Case: 25-11979 Document: 25-1 Date Filed: 03/23/2026 Page: 3 of 3

25-11979 Opinion of the Court 3

for a period not to exceed 30 days from the expiration of the time otherwise prescribed by . . . Rule 4(b)”); United States v. Lopez, 562 F.3d 1309, 1314 (11th Cir. 2009). Accordingly, because the government raised the issue of timeliness, we must apply Rule 4(b)(1)(A)(i) and dismiss this appeal as untimely. See Lopez, 562 F.3d at 1314. The motion to dismiss is GRANTED, and this appeal is DISMISSED.