Filed: Mar. 28, 2007
Latest Update: Feb. 12, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 05-4882 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus HAKIM NASIF TRENT, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Newport News. Walter D. Kelley, Jr., District Judge. (CR-04-141) Submitted: March 21, 2007 Decided: March 28, 2007 Before WILKINS, Chief Judge, and WIDENER and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges. Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opini
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 05-4882 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus HAKIM NASIF TRENT, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Newport News. Walter D. Kelley, Jr., District Judge. (CR-04-141) Submitted: March 21, 2007 Decided: March 28, 2007 Before WILKINS, Chief Judge, and WIDENER and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges. Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinio..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 05-4882
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
versus
HAKIM NASIF TRENT,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia, at Newport News. Walter D. Kelley, Jr.,
District Judge. (CR-04-141)
Submitted: March 21, 2007 Decided: March 28, 2007
Before WILKINS, Chief Judge, and WIDENER and WILKINSON, Circuit
Judges.
Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Frank W. Dunham, Jr., Federal Public Defender, Larry W. Shelton,
Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE
FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellant. Paul J.
McNulty, United States Attorney, Andrew M. Robbins, Special
Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
ATTORNEY, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Hakim Nasif Trent appeals his sentence for being a felon in
possession of a firearm and ammunition. See 18 U.S.C.A.
§ 922(g)(1) (West 2000). We vacate and remand.
I.
On October 15, 2004, Officer William Graham of the Newport
News (Virginia) Police Department pulled over a purple Ford Escort
driven by Trent. Officer Graham had been advised to watch for such
a vehicle because Trent was wanted in Portsmouth for charges
including attempted capital murder of a police officer four days
earlier. After removing Trent from the vehicle, Officer Graham
recovered a fully loaded .38 caliber revolver from Trent’s pants,
seven .38 caliber bullets from Trent’s right-side watch pocket, and
a box of Remmington .38 caliber ammunition from under Trent’s seat.
As a result, a federal grand jury charged Trent in an
indictment with being a felon in possession of a firearm and
ammunition. Trent pleaded guilty to the indictment.
In Trent’s presentence report, the probation officer
recommended increasing Trent’s offense level based on his attempted
murder of the police officer four days before Trent’s arrest.
Trent objected, however, arguing that consideration of that conduct
would not be proper unless Trent admitted it or it was proven
beyond a reasonable doubt. Although the Government argued that
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proof of the conduct by a preponderance of the evidence was all
that was required, the district court adopted Trent’s position.
When the Virginia state court trial on the attempted capital murder
charge resulted in a hung jury, the Government submitted that the
district court should sentence Trent without considering the
alleged conduct, and the district court did so.
The district court determined that Trent’s total offense level
was 17, which, with his Criminal History Category of III, yielded
a guideline range of 30 to 37 months imprisonment. The district
court, however, determined that that range failed to adequately
address the sentencing purposes of promoting respect for the law,
deterring criminal conduct, and protecting the public from the
defendant’s future crimes. See 18 U.S.C.A. § 3553(a)(2) (West
2000). In this regard, the court noted that Trent had been
involved in serious violent crime, was arrested for the crime of
conviction only eight months after being released from
incarceration, and had “pictures of guns tattooed on each forearm.”
J.A. 62. On this basis, the district court sentenced Trent to 108
months imprisonment.
After his federal sentencing, Trent pleaded guilty in Virginia
state court to the attempted capital murder. He was sentenced to
30 years imprisonment with 14 years suspended conditioned on 14
years of supervised probation after his release. The first 108
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months of his active state service was ordered to run concurrently
with his federal sentence.
II.
At the time Trent was sentenced, United States v. Booker,
543
U.S. 220 (2005), had only recently rendered the federal sentencing
guidelines advisory, and much uncertainty existed as to how the
new, advisory scheme should be applied. Since that time, we have
resolved many significant issues, including the standard of proof
district courts should employ in finding facts affecting the
applicable guideline range, see United States v. Morris,
429 F.3d
65, 72 (4th Cir. 2005), and the process courts should utilize in
determining how to incorporate the advisory guideline range into an
analysis of the appropriate sentence to impose, see, e.g., United
States v. Moreland,
437 F.3d 424, 432-33 (4th Cir.), cert. denied,
126 S. Ct. 1054 (2006). In order to provide the district court
with the benefit of these and other recent decisions, we vacate
Trent’s sentence and remand for reconsideration. 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.
VACATED AND REMANDED
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