United States v. Ricardo Cole

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: September 18, 2025
• Docket: 24-3561
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________

No. 24-3561 ___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Ricardo Cole

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis ____________

Submitted: September 15, 2025 Filed: September 18, 2025 [Unpublished] ____________

Before LOKEN, GRUENDER, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges. ____________

PER CURIAM.

Ricardo Cole appeals the below-Guidelines sentence the district court1 imposed after he pleaded guilty to a firearms offense. His counsel has moved for leave to

1 The Honorable Henry E. Autrey, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. withdraw, and has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), challenging the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.

Upon careful review, we conclude that the district court did not impose a substantively unreasonable sentence. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461-62 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (reviewing sentence under deferential abuse-of- discretion standard; discussing substantive reasonableness); United States v. McCauley, 715 F.3d 1119, 1127 (8th Cir. 2013) (noting when a district court has varied below the Guidelines range, it is “nearly inconceivable” that the court abused its discretion by not varying downward further). In addition, having independently reviewed the record pursuant to Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75 (1988), we find no nonfrivolous issues for appeal. Accordingly, we grant counsel leave to withdraw, and we affirm. ______________________________

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