Filed: Apr. 26, 2006
Latest Update: Mar. 28, 2017
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 04-5103 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus DARWIN CHARLES BECKSTEAD, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg. W. Craig Broadwater, District Judge. (CR-04-36) Submitted: March 20, 2006 Decided: April 26, 2006 Before WILKINSON, MICHAEL, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. L. Richard Walke
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 04-5103 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus DARWIN CHARLES BECKSTEAD, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg. W. Craig Broadwater, District Judge. (CR-04-36) Submitted: March 20, 2006 Decided: April 26, 2006 Before WILKINSON, MICHAEL, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. L. Richard Walker..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 04-5103
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
versus
DARWIN CHARLES BECKSTEAD,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern
District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg. W. Craig Broadwater,
District Judge. (CR-04-36)
Submitted: March 20, 2006 Decided: April 26, 2006
Before WILKINSON, MICHAEL, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
L. Richard Walker, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Wheeling,
West Virginia, for Appellant. Thomas E. Johnston, United States
Attorney, Zelda E. Wesley, Assistant United States Attorney,
Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
See Local Rule 36(c).
PER CURIAM:
Darwin Beckstead was convicted by a jury of harboring a
fugitive, 18 U.S.C. § 1071 (2000), and sentenced to 41 months
imprisonment. He appeals, claiming that the evidence was
insufficient to support his conviction and that his sentence was
imposed in violation of his Sixth Amendment rights under United
States v. Booker,
543 U.S. 220 (2005). For the reasons that
follow, we affirm.
Conviction under § 1071 requires that the Government
prove beyond a reasonable doubt that: (1) a federal warrant has
been issued for the fugitive’s arrest, (2) the harborer had
knowledge that a warrant had been issued for the fugitive’s arrest,
(3) the defendant actually harbored or concealed the fugitive, and
(4) the defendant intended to prevent the fugitive’s discovery or
arrest. See United States v. Silva,
745 F.2d 840, 848 (4th Cir.
1984). Here, the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to
the Government, see United States v. Burgos,
94 F.3d 849, 854 (4th
Cir. 1996) (en banc), established the following. On March 18,
2004, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Kenny Buzzo as a
result of Buzzo’s pretrial release violations. Based on
information that Buzzo was in the company of Beckstead, U.S.
Marshals twice came to Beckstead’s trailer in Morgantown, West
Virginia. At the time, Beckstead was working as a taxicab driver
and, according to one witness, Buzzo had been seen in Beckstead’s
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cab. Beckstead denied any knowledge of Buzzo’s whereabouts. A
deputy Marshal advised Beckstead of the haboring statute and
potential penalties he faced if he were to render any assistance to
Buzzo.
Buzzo was ultimately apprehended when he arrived at a
doctor’s appointment on April 8, 2004. Beckstead was sitting in
his cab in the parking lot outside the doctor’s office and admitted
that he had driven Buzzo to the appointment. According to Buzzo’s
companion, who was seated in the cab with Beckstead, the plan was
for Beckstead to drive Buzzo to the post office to pick up his
workman’s compensation check, then to his doctor’s appointment, and
finally to Big Bear Lake in Preston County, West Virginia. Buzzo
was to pay Beckstead an undisclosed amount of money for his
assistance. We find this evidence sufficient to support
Beckstead’s conviction.
Beckstead also claims that his sentence violates his
Sixth Amendment rights under United States v. Booker. Beckstead’s
base offense level of 19 was determined by subtracting six levels
from the base offense level assigned to Buzzo in his federal drug
prosecution, pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual
§ 2X3.1(a)(1) (2003). With a criminal history category of II,
Beckstead’s sentencing range, without the enhancement for
obstruction of justice, USSG § 3C1.1, would have been 33 to 41
months imprisonment. With the additional two-level enhancement,
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Beckstead’s sentencing range was 41 to 51 months. To constitute
Sixth Amendment error after Booker, the sentence imposed must have
exceeded what could have been imposed without the challenged
enhancement. United States v. Evans,
416 F.3d 298, 300 (4th Cir.
2005). Because Beckstead’s 41-month sentence did not exceed the
maximum sentence authorized by the jury’s verdict, we find no Sixth
Amendment error. See Evans, 416 F.3d at 300-01.
We therefore affirm Beckstead’s conviction and sentence.
We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the
court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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