United States v. Ted Fulk

879 F.3d 859
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 11, 2018
Docket16-4088
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 879 F.3d 859 (United States v. Ted Fulk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Ted Fulk, 879 F.3d 859 (8th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

MELLOY, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Ted Howard Fulk pleaded guilty to one count of failure to register as a sex offender in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2250, his fourth conviction related to registry requirements. The district court 1 sentenced him to thirty-seven months’ imprisonment and ten years’ supervised release. His supervised release includes a special condition requiring court approval before traveling outside of the state of Iowa. Fulk appeals the length of supervised release and the special travel condition. We affirm.

In July 2015, the police stopped Fulk while he was driving in Des Moines, Iowa. Fulk identified himself as an Australian named Seth Matthew Allen. Fulk did not have a valid driver’s license and was arrested. Fingerprinting revealed Fulk’s true identity, including that he' was a sex offender. On release, Fulk registered with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, but he did so.under the name Seth Matthew Allen.

Shortly thereafter, police initiated a second traffic stop and arrested Fulk for failing to comply with the sex offender registry. Law enforcement had discovered that Fulk had been living in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, as an unregistered sex offender since at least September 2014.

During Fulk’s sentencing hearing, the district court thoroughly reviewed his biographical and criminal history. The district court noted Fulk had previously used several known aliases. While his residential and employment history are largely unknown,. the district court pointed out that Fulk had lived in Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Tennessee. The court also took notice of Fulk’s desire to move to the United Kingdom with his girlfriend, a British citizen.

At the time of the sentencing hearing Fulk was incarcerated at the Muscatine County Jail. The district court noted that during his time at the jail, Fulk acquired more than fifteen disciplinary charges. The district court also found that Fulk made a false sexual assault claim against a correctional officer. Fulk contacted several governmental and non-governmental agencies, at times making false claims about the jail. The court noted that Fulk wrote a letter to his girlfriend, while his mail was monitored, that contained troubling threats against jail employees. Accordingly, the district court expressed a need to have “some consistent longevity in who is keeping an eye on him.”

I. Ten-Year Term of Supervised Release

Fulk contends that the ten-year term of supervised release is unreasonable. We review the reasonableness of his sentence “under a deferential abuse-of-d’iscretion standard.” Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41, 128 S.Ct. 586, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). Additionally, where a district court imposes a sentence within the advisory guideline range there is a rebuttable presumption that the sentence is substantively reasonable. United States v. Ruelas-Mendez, 556 F.3d 655, 657 (8th Cir. 2009). Fulk’s' ten-year term of supervised release is well within the advisory guideline range of five years to life and should be presumed to be substantively reasonable.

Furthermore, the sentencing court has “substantial discretion in determining how to weigh” the statutory sentencing factors. United States v. Morais, 670 F.3d 889, 893 (8th Cir. 2012). “A district court is not required to recite each of the sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), as long as the record makes clear that they were considered.” United States v. Powills, 537 F.3d 947, 950 (8th Cir. 2008). Here, the district court thoroughly discussed, on the record, the elements of Fulk’s biographical and criminal history. The district court also discussed the specific factors that supported Fulk’s term of supervised release.

Finally, Fulk argues that at sentencing both parties recommended a five-year term of supervised release and not the district court’s sentence of ten years’ supervised release. However, “[sentencing recommendations are just that—recommendations—which do not bind the district court.” United States v. White, 367 F.3d 968, 970 (8th Cir. 2004). Instead, as discussed above, the sentencing court has substantial discretion in weighing the sentencing factors and need not articulate independent reasons for deviating from a joint recommendation. As the term of supervised release is within the sentencing guidelines, and the district court more than sufficiently considered the § 3553(a) factors, we find, the ten-year term of supervised release to be reasonable.

II. Special Travel Condition

Fulk appeals the special travel condition included with the terms of his-supervised release. The special travel condition provides “[t]he defendant is not permitted to travel outside the state of Iowa during his term of supervision without further order of the Court.” Generally, “[w]e review the district court’s imposition of special conditions for abuse of discretion.” Morais, 670 F.3d at 895. Under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d), a district court has broad discretion to impose special conditions, as long as the conditions'Satisfy all three statutory requirements. 670 F.3d at. 895. At issue are the first two requirements, specifically, whether the special travel condition (1) is “reasonably related to the sentencing factors set forth in§ 3553(a),!’ and (2) “involve[s] no greater deprivation of -liberty than is reasonably necessary for the purposes set forth in § 3553(a).” Id. To determine, whether a special condition satisfies these requirements, the court must make an “individualized inquiry’.’ into the facts and circumstances to avoid categorical sentencing and must make sufficient findings on the record to be statutorily compliant. Id.

First, the special travel condition is sufficiently related to the statute’s sentencing factors to satisfy the reasonable-relation requirement. Special conditions are reasonably related to the statutory sentencing factors if they are “tailored to ‘the nature and circumstances of the offense, the defendant’s history and characteristics, the deterrence of criminal conduct, the protection of the public from further crimes of the defendant, and the defendant’s educational, vocational, medicinal or other correctional needs.’” United States v. Bender, 566 F.3d 748, 751 (8th Cir. 2009) (quoting United States v. Crume, 422 F.3d 728, 733 (8th Cir. 2005)). Here, the district court imposed the special travel condition based on the nature and circumstances surrounding the July 2015 traffic stops and Fulk’s fourth conviction- for failing to register as a sex offender.

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Bluebook (online)
879 F.3d 859, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-ted-fulk-ca8-2018.