United States v. Shurn, Weylin M.

163 F. App'x 409
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 25, 2006
Docket05-2780
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 163 F. App'x 409 (United States v. Shurn, Weylin M.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Shurn, Weylin M., 163 F. App'x 409 (7th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

ORDER

Weylin M. Shurn was convicted after a bench trial of armed bank robbery, 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a), (d); conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery, id. §§ 371, 2113(a), (d); and use of a firearm in the course of the armed bank robbery, id. § 924(c)(1). This case now comes back to us after we previously vacated the judgment on the parties’ joint motion for re-sentencing.

Shurn and three co-conspirators robbed the Guardian Credit Union in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In the course of the April 2002 robbery, Shurn chased and physically restrained a teller who tried to run from the bank. The district court originally departed above the applicable range of 100 to 125 months under the sentencing guidelines and sentenced Shurn to concurrent prison terms of 145 months on the robbery and conspiracy counts. The court also sentenced Shurn on the firearm count to a consecutive term of 120 months, the mandatory minimum for that offense because the firearm was discharged. 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(iii), (D)(ii). Shurn received concurrent terms of supervised release ranging from three to five years and was ordered to pay over $19,000 in restitution.

On Shurn’s initial appeal, the government conceded that the district court erred *411 in calculating the bank’s losses to include salaries paid to employees for the day after the robbery while the bank was closed as well as medical expenses of the teller Shurn restrained. This error resulted in Shurn receiving a one-level upward adjustment in his offense level under the sentencing guidelines for causing over $10,000 in losses. U.S.S.G. § 2B3.1(b)(7)(B). On remand the district court eliminated this increase but then misstated the resulting total offense level as 24 instead of 26 and overlooked the upward departure imposed at the original sentencing. The court resentenced Shurn on the robbery and conspiracy counts to concurrent terms of 96 months in prison. That term is at the high end of the range based on a total offense level of 24 and Shurris criminal history category of IV. Given the true total offense level of 26, however, 96 months is near the low end of the correct range of 92 to 115 months even ignoring the upward departure. The district court also reinstated the consecutive 120-month term on the firearm count and reduced the restitution amount to $4,542.

Shurn now appeals from the district court’s sentence on remand, but his appointed counsel has moved to withdraw under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), because he cannot discern any nonfrivolous argument to present. Shurn filed a response to counsel’s submission under Circuit Rule 51(b). Since counsel’s brief is facially adequate, we will consider only the potential issues identified in counsel’s brief and Shurris response. See United States v. Tabb, 125 F.3d 583, 584 (7th Cir.1997) (per curiam).

As an initial matter, both counsel and Shurn identify a number of possible issues regarding events at or before trial. Counsel also discusses other guideline adjustments that were imposed at the original sentencing but not challenged during the initial appeal. None of these issues would be properly before us since they were beyond the scope of the remand. When an issue could have been raised in the initial appeal and was not, that issue is waived and is beyond the scope of the remand. United States v. Sumner, 325 F.3d 884, 891 (7th Cir.2003); United States v. Husband, 312 F.3d 247, 250-51 (7th Cir.2002). In addition, if the remand order “identifies a discrete, particular error” that the district court can fix without having to revisit other issues, the remand is “limited to correcting that error.” United States v. Parker, 101 F.3d 527, 528 (7th Cir.1996); see also United States v. Jackson, 186 F.3d 836, 838 (7th Cir.1999). Our order in the prior appeal says explicitly that the remand was for resentencing after correction of the loss amount. United States v. Shurn, No. 03-2325 (7th Cir. June 24, 2004). Furthermore, it was Shurn himself who asked for the remand, and in the unopposed motion he filed, Shurn represented to us that the only issue that could be raised in that appeal was the loss calculation. See Unopposed Motion to Suspend Briefing and Remand for Re-sentencing, Pursuant to Circuit Rule 57 at 8-9. That issue was resolved by our remand order, and at that point all other arguments that Shurn might have raised in his initial appeal were waived. He cannot revive them now simply because of “the accident of a remand,” Parker, 101 F.3d at 528, and so we agree with counsel that all possible issues involving events before Shurris resentencing are precluded.

Finally, counsel questions whether Shurn might argue that his overall sentence as amended is unreasonable. An argument about reasonableness — at least from Shurn — would be particularly frivolous in this case. At the resentencing the district court did not rescind any guideline *412 adjustment except the single offense level at issue in the earlier appeal, nor did the district court give any indication that the psychological harm inflicted on the teller Shurn restrained was no longer an appropriate basis to sentence above the guidelines range. Rather, when the effect of the upward departure is factored in, it appears that the court inadvertently reduced Shurn’s total offense level by the equivalent of six levels instead of the one level the court intended. Even without the departure, though, the court should have calculated a range of 92 to 115 months on the robbery and conspiracy counts given that the total offense level is 26, not 24. Shurn’s concurrent sentence of 96 months on each of these counts is near the bottom of the properly calculated range and thus presumptively reasonable, United States v. Cunningham, 429 F.3d 673, 675 (7th Cir.2005); United States v. Mykytiuk, 415 F.3d 606, 608 (7th Cir.2005), and the consecutive term of 120 months he received for the firearm count is not subject to challenge because it was statutorily required, United States v. Henry, 408 F.3d 930, 935 (7th Cir.2005). Neither counsel nor Shurn identifies any factor under 18 U.S.C. § 3553

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Bluebook (online)
163 F. App'x 409, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-shurn-weylin-m-ca7-2006.