United States v. Willie Edward Hill

291 F. App'x 968
Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided September 9, 2008·No. 08-10771·Unpublished

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Willie Hill appeals the district court’s order revoking his supervised release and sentencing him to 24 months’ imprisonment, 10 months above the advisory guideline range. At the revocation hearing, Gwendolyn Miller, a nurse at College Park Healthcare Center (CPHC), where Hill was enrolled in a residential drug treatment program, testified that Hill grabbed *969 her shirt in an offensive manner, and a fellow CPHC resident, Jerry Porter, testified that Hill struck him without provocation. Hill asserts that the evidence that he committed the violations was “marked by inadequacy, inconsistency, and bias” and, therefore, was insufficient to sustain the revocation of his supervised release. Next, Hill argues that his sentence was unreasonable, noting that his sentence exceeded by ten months the guideline range for his violation, and reasserting that the evidence was insufficient to establish the violations. First, because the district court was entitled to credit the testimony of Miller, a nurse at the residential healthcare center where Hill was enrolled in a drug treatment program, and Porter, a fellow resident at the center, the district court did not clearly err in finding that Hill had committed two acts of battery, in violation of his supervised release. Second, because the district court specifically considered Hill’s criminal history, as well as prior allegations that he had violated his supervised release, the court did not abuse its discretion in imposing an above-guidelines sentence. Therefore, we AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

In May of 2006, Hill was convicted of six counts of distribution of heroin, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C), and 851. Rl-46. He was sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment, which constituted an upward departure from his guideline sentencing range of 24-30 months’ imprisonment, and 6 years’ supervised release. Id.; R6 at 3, 9. The conditions of Hill’s supervised release included that he refrain from committing another crime and that he submit to random drug and alcohol testing. Rl-46 at 3. In August of 2007, following Hill’s release from prison, a U.S. Probation Officer (USPO) petitioned the district court for revocation of Hill’s supervised release because he had tested positive for the use of cocaine. R2-63. This petition was withdrawn after the College Park Healthcare Center (CPHC) agreed to accept Hill into a residential program. R7 at 58. In December 2007, the USPO once again petitioned the court to revoke Hill’s supervised release, this time alleging that he had committed new criminal conduct by (1) inappropriately touching a female nursing assistant, and (2) striking another resident in the mouth, causing him to be hospitalized. Record Excerpts at Doc. R2-64.

At the revocation hearing, Hill denied the violations. R7 at 2. The government informed the court that it believed that Hill’s conduct constituted a grade C violation, which would result in a guideline range of 8-14 months’ imprisonment if his supervised release were revoked. Id. at 3. Hill did not contest this assertion. Gwendolyn Miller, a certified nursing assistant employed by CPHC, testified that, while she was working, Hill pushed James Clemmons, 1 another resident, up to her, and Hill pulled up her shut while Clemmons pulled down her pants. Id. at 5-7. On cross-examination, Miller stated that she had been facing a kiosk against a wall when Hill and Clemmons approached her from her right side, and Hill “pulled [her] shirt down at the top,” but she did not report the incident until the next day. Id. at 13-17. Hill was behind Clemmons’s wheelchair when the incident occurred. Id. at 14-15. She stated that she had not *970 experienced previous problems with Hill, though she had complained of inappropriate remarks by Clemmons. Id. at 9-10.

Jerry Porter, a CPHC resident, testified that one day, while he and Hill were playing cards for money, he thought that Hill was cheating, and when he reached to take his money, Hill hit him twice in the mouth, which required him to visit the hospital. Id. at 18-20. On cross-examination, Porter stated that, after Hill hit him, he threw a pole at Hill, but missed, and he acknowledged that, if it was determined that he started the fight, he could be removed from the nursing home, which he did not want to happen because he needed medical care. Id. at 25-28.

Deek Cateau, an administrator at CPHC, testified that he had received reports of the two incidents. Id. at 29, 32. The first report documented Miller’s statements to Cateau that Hill and another resident cornered her in the hallway, and Hill held her while the other resident pulled down her pants. Id. at 32. The second report stated that two residents were involved in a fight, and through investigation of this report, Cateau discovered that Hill was one of the residents involved in the fight and the other resident required medical attention. Id. at 32-33. Defense witness Brenda Lewis, a staff investigator for the Federal Defender Program, testified that she interviewed Clemmons, who told her that he and Hill had not planned to do anything to the nurse, and he had grabbed the nurse’s pants and accidentally pulled them down. Id. at ST-39. On cross-examination, Lewis acknowledged that the resident had told her that he was “playing” with the nurse, and he could not remember the extent of Hill’s involvement. Id. at 43-44.

The government argued that credible testimony and evidence established that Hill committed the violations and asserted that Hill’s lengthy criminal history and continued disobedience to rules and orders demonstrated the need for the court to impose the maximum term, ie. 36 months’ imprisonment. Id. at 47-49. Hill argued that the evidence did not establish that he had committed any violation of his supervised release, in that, with regard to the first incident, Miller’s testimony established that Clemmons, and not Hill, pulled down Miller’s pants, and Hill was separated from Miller by Clemmons’s wheelchair. Id. at 49. He also noted Clemmons’s statement to the investigator that he had not coordinated with Hill an effort to expose Miller, which he argued was consistent with Miller’s statement that she had not previously experienced problems with Hill. Id. at 50. With regard to the second incident, he argued that there was no unbiased testimony establishing that Hill, rather than Porter, who was angry over the card game, initiated the altercation. Id. at 51. He also noted that Porter did not require any stitches or treatment for the injury to his mouth. Id. Hill asked that, if the court decided to revoke his supervised release, he be sentenced within the guideline range of 8-14 months for his violation, noting that he had a very low intelligence as well as numerous mental disorders, and the alleged violations were misdemeanors at most. Id. at 52-55.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

United States v. Willie Edward Hill, 291 F. App'x 968 (11th Cir. 2008).

291 F. App'x 968 (United States v. Willie Edward Hill) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

United States v. Jennifer Aguillard
217 F.3d 1319 (Eleventh Circuit, 2000)
United States v. Charles Crawford, Jr.
407 F.3d 1174 (Eleventh Circuit, 2005)
United States v. Ashanti Sweeting
437 F.3d 1105 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. Felix Esteban Thomas
446 F.3d 1348 (Eleventh Circuit, 2006)
United States v. John Windell Clay
483 F.3d 739 (Eleventh Circuit, 2007)
United States v. Pugh
515 F.3d 1179 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
Rita v. United States
551 U.S. 338 (Supreme Court, 2007)
Gall v. United States
552 U.S. 38 (Supreme Court, 2007)
United States v. Christopher Alan Almand
992 F.2d 316 (Eleventh Circuit, 1993)
United States v. Dwaine Copeland
20 F.3d 412 (Eleventh Circuit, 1994)
United States v. William Joseph Frazier
26 F.3d 110 (Eleventh Circuit, 1994)