United States v. Slater

694 F. App'x 813
CourtCourt of Appeals for the First Circuit
DecidedJune 2, 2017
Docket16-1188U
StatusUnpublished

This text of 694 F. App'x 813 (United States v. Slater) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the First 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. Slater, 694 F. App'x 813 (1st Cir. 2017).

Opinion

KAYATTA, Circuit Judge.

This sentencing appeal presents two issues: (1) whether the district court plainly erred by considering a victim-impact statement that the defendant claims he was not able to review prior to sentencing; and (2) whether the defendant’s sentence was procedurally or substantively unreasonable. Because the defendant has failed to show how he was prejudiced by any delay he may have experienced in receiving the victim-impact statement, and because the district court appears to have adequately considered and explained the relevant factors that led it to impose a within-guidelines sentence, we affirm the district court.

I.

The facts of this case are drawn from the revised presentence investigation report (“PSI Report”) and are not in dispute. On June 23, 2014, local police officers responded to a bank robbery at a Bank of Maine branch in Hallowell, Maine. The officers’ investigation revealed that a male customer had entered the branch and told a teller that he was interested in opening an account. After the teller led the customer into an office to begin the accounts opening process, the customer handed the teller a note that stated the following:

Im [sic] Here to Rob your Bank, no Silent Alarms my cell phone rings, your [sic] all dead, I have a hand grenade, and a gun, no marked bills, or inked, if so, one day I will come back and kill all of you, do you understand? ? ?

The man then told the teller, “I’m sick. I want $15,000. I don’t care, I’ll shoot. Now you didn’t set off the alarm? If you did, my phone will go off.” The teller thereafter left the office, told the branch manager what was happening, and the two employees retrieved $15,000 in brand new $100 bills, which they gave to the man.

Within a matter of days, and with the public’s help, the man was identified as defendant John Slater. The execution of warrants for two residences listed under Slater’s name yielded a number of incriminating items, including some of the clothes that the man wore on the day of the robbery, stationery that matched the note that the man provided the teller, a Bank of Maine cash bag, and a partially used box of ammunition. On July 9, 2014, law enforcement agents located and arrested Slater at a motel in Twin Mountain, New Hampshire. Before the agents were able to advise him of his Miranda rights, Slater asked them how they had found him and stated that he “knew [he] shouldn’t have done it.” The agents recovered $2592 in cash as well as a gun that matched the ammunition box discovered at one of Slater’s residences. Slater did not have a permit to possess the gun, which he had purchased through a private sale.

After waiving his Miranda rights, Slater admitted to the robbery and revealed various details not only about the robbery but also about his activities after the fact. Slater also stated that although he did not know why he had robbed the bank, he had not taken his medication for bipolar disorder as prescribed. Slater further claimed that he regretted committing the robbery and that he was planning on turning himself into the police the following day.

On October 28, 2016, Slater pled guilty to one count of bank robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Pursuant to the United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“Guidelines Manual”), the PSI Report calculated a total offense level of twenty-five and a criminal history score of twelve, *815 which corresponded with an advisory-guidelines range of 100 to 125 months’ imprisonment. Slater’s criminal history score—which placed him in criminal history category V—-was based on a string of criminal convictions, with the most recent conviction occurring in 2009. The district court later “calculated that the total amount of time the defendant has been sentenced since age 18 is over 63 years,” although “[m]uch ... of that time ... involved sentences that were suspended.”

Slater’s initial sentencing memorandum requested a below-guidelines sentence based on “his early acceptance of responsibility” as well as his “age, health, and military service.” In support of his request, Slater noted that he was sixty-six years old at the time of the robbery; that he suffered from “Parkinson’s disease, PTSD, anxiety, depression and left arm paralysis, arthritis, as well as [a] lesion on his nose”; and that he suffered from “PTSD, anxiety and depression as a consequence of his [military] service” in Vietnam. Slater’s subsequent reply memorandum specifically requested a sentence of forty-eight months’ imprisonment, and further noted that a soon-to-be adopted amendment to the Guidelines Manual lowered the relevant guidelines range to ninety-two to 115 months’ imprisonment.

The government’s sentencing memorandum requested a sentence at or near the top of the guidelines range, followed by a three-year term of supervised release. The government noted the nature and seriousness of Slater’s offense and drew upon a “victim impact statement that has been submitted to the court” to suggest that the robbery “was a terrifying event for bank employees.” After pointing to Slater’s “long and serious criminal history,” the government responded to Slater’s request for a below-guidelines sentence based on his age by arguing that “[h]is criminal conduct has spanned most of his life unaffected by age or lengthy prison sentences,” and therefore, that “[t]here is no reason to believe that his age has or will deter his criminal conduct and his age does not distinguish his case in a meaningful way from the typical case.” The government further argued that Slater’s “[mental] conditions are serious but ... not extraordinary,” and that there “is nothing to suggest that they played any role in the instant offense or that treatment of those conditions cannot be achieved in a Bureau of Prisons facility.” The government also downplayed the significance of Slater’s “commendable” .military service, insofar as “[t]he honor that the defendant showed in his military service is notably absent from his long history of criminal conduct.”

On January 29,2016, the district court— using the advisory guidelines range of ninety-two to 115 months—sentenced Slater to 115 months of imprisonment to be followed by a three-year term of supervised release. The grounds on which the district court based that sentence, as well as the manner in which it was imposed, form the basis of this appeal.

II.

“[A] sentencing court, whenever it considers documents to which Rule 32 [of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure] does not apply, should ... disclose to the defendant as much as was relied upon, in a timely manner, so as to afford the defendant a fair opportunity to examine and challenge it.” United States v. Curran, 926 F.2d 59, 63 (1st Cir. 1991). Here, the court indisputably relied upon' the victim-impact statement submitted by the bank teller: during sentencing, the government referred to the statement at some length, and the district court expressly referred to the “trauma” experienced by the bank teller in imposing its sentence. Thus, the *816

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Bluebook (online)
694 F. App'x 813, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-slater-ca1-2017.