United States v. Seronte Newby

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 2, 2021
Docket19-3731
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Seronte Newby (United States v. Seronte Newby) 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. Seronte Newby, (6th Cir. 2021).

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 21a0112n.06

Nos. 19-3730/3731

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Mar 02, 2021 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED v. ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR ) THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF RONQUEIZE HEAD (19-3730); SERONTE ) OHIO NEWBY (19-3731), ) ) Defendants-Appellants. )

BEFORE: MOORE, GILMAN, and GRIFFIN, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

The United States Sentencing Guidelines increase a criminal defendant’s offense level if

he possesses a firearm “in connection with another felony offense.” U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B).

The main issue in this appeal is whether Defendants Ronqueize Head and Seronte Newby

committed “another felony offense” under the framework we adopted in United States v. Sanders,

162 F.3d 396, 400–01 (6th Cir. 1998). We conclude that they did. Defendants also offer various

other arguments for relief. None of them are persuasive. Accordingly, we affirm the district

court’s judgments.

I.

Defendants Ronqueize Head and Seronte Newby are maternal half-brothers. Over the

course of two weeks in July 2017, they broke into three gun stores and stole over seventy guns. Nos. 19-3730/3731, United States v. Head, et al.

Defendants’ spree included a break-in at Mark’s Guns, which is in Kentucky; they made off with

twenty-two firearms. Law enforcement eventually caught up with the brothers and arrested them.

A federal grand jury indicted both defendants for one count of conspiring to commit theft

of a federal firearms licensee and two counts of theft from a federal firearms licensee. The grand

jury also charged Head (but not Newby) with one count of possessing a stolen firearm and one

count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. Head pleaded guilty to his five counts,

and Newby pleaded guilty to his three counts.

For both defendants, the Presentence Report (“PSR”) recommended that the district court

apply U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)’s four-level enhancement. The probation officer reasoned that

§ 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) applies “if the defendant possessed any firearm or ammunition in connection

with another felony offense,” and in this case, the defendants “robbe[d] . . . three separate gun

stores” and “possessed stolen firearms while committing a robbery offense.” Newby did not object

to the enhancement, but Head did, based on two theories. First, Head argued that § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)

did not apply at all because there were not any eligible offenses to satisfy the enhancement’s

“another felony offense” component. Second, he contended that enhancing his sentence pursuant

to § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) would constitute double counting. The government disagreed. It argued that

defendants committed felony burglary under Kentucky state-law during their visit to Mark’s Guns,

which satisfied the “another felony offense” requirement. Additionally, the government argued

that Application Note 14(B) clarified that applying § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)’s enhancement based on a

state-law felony burglary would not constitute double-counting. The district court agreed with the

government, overruled Head’s objection, and applied the enhancement. The district court imposed

below-Guidelines sentences on both defendants.

Head and Newby each timely appealed.

-2- Nos. 19-3730/3731, United States v. Head, et al.

II.

A.

Defendants challenge the procedural reasonableness of their sentences. Newby did not

preserve his procedural-reasonableness attacks on his sentence, so they are subject to plain-error

review. United States v. Davis, 751 F.3d 769, 773 (6th Cir. 2014). Head, however, did preserve

his procedural-reasonableness challenges to his sentence, so we review them under the abuse of

discretion standard. United States v. Mack, 808 F.3d 1074, 1084 (6th Cir. 2015). The party

challenging the procedural reasonableness of a sentence has the burden to demonstrate that the

district court abused its discretion when it imposed the sentence. United States v. Houston, 529

F.3d 743, 756 (6th Cir. 2008). A district court abuses its discretion when it imposes a procedurally

unreasonable sentence. United States v. Amawi, 695 F.3d 457, 486 (6th Cir. 2012). “A sentence

is procedurally unreasonable if, among other things, the district court ‘fail[s] to calculate (or

improperly calculate[s]) the Guidelines range, treat[s] the Guidelines as mandatory, fail[s] to

consider the § 3553(a) factors, select[s] a sentence based on clearly erroneous facts, or fail[s] to

adequately explain the chosen sentence.’” Davis, 751 F.3d at 773 (alterations in original) (quoting

Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007)). And in this context, “our review of the district

court’s specific legal determinations . . . is de novo, and our review of the district court’s specific

factual findings is for clear error.” Id.

B.

Newby also attacks the substantive reasonableness of his sentence, which we review for an

abuse of discretion. United States v. Sherrill, 972 F.3d 752, 769 (6th Cir. 2020). The party

disputing the substantive reasonableness of a sentence has the burden to show that the district court

abused its discretion when it imposed the sentence. Houston, 529 F.3d at 756. A district court

-3- Nos. 19-3730/3731, United States v. Head, et al.

abuses its discretion when it imposes a substantively unreasonable sentence. Amawi, 695 F.3d at

486. Generally, “a sentence is unreasonable ‘if it is selected arbitrarily, if it is based on

impermissible factors, if it fails to consider a relevant sentencing factor, or if it gives an

unreasonable amount of weight to any pertinent factor.’” United States v. Massey, 663 F.3d 852,

857 (6th Cir. 2011) (quoting United States v. Rosenbaum, 585 F.3d 259, 267 (6th Cir. 2009)).

Here, however, Newby challenges a below-Guidelines sentence caused by a downward variance.

Because of that wrinkle, “rather than asking whether considerations based upon § 3553(a) are

sufficiently compelling to justify the sentence, this court must determine whether the

considerations based upon § 3553(a) are so compelling as to necessitate a shorter sentence.”

United States v. Kirchhof, 505 F.3d 409, 414–15 (6th Cir. 2007). And, “[a]lthough it is not

impossible to succeed on a substantive-reasonableness challenge to a below-guidelines sentence,

defendants who seek to do so bear a heavy burden.” United States v. Greco, 734 F.3d 441, 450

(6th Cir. 2013).

C.

Finally, Newby also brings an ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim. Such “claims are

mixed questions of law and fact, which [we] review de novo.” United States v. Levenderis, 806

F.3d 390, 401 (6th Cir. 2015) (citation omitted).

III.

The main issue in this appeal is whether the district court imposed a procedurally

unreasonable sentence on defendants when it allegedly miscalculated their Guidelines ranges by—

according to defendants—erroneously applying § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B)’s possession-of-a-firearm-in-

connection-with-another-felony-offense enhancement.

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