Filed: Mar. 30, 2016
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT March 30, 2016 _ Elisabeth A. Shumaker Clerk of Court UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 15-3196 v. (D.C. No. 6:13-CR-10197-EFM-3) (D. Kan.) DAPHNE MEWHINNEY, Defendant - Appellant. _ ORDER AND JUDGMENT* _ Before HARTZ, MURPHY, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges. _ Defendant Daphne MeWhinney appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, whic
Summary: FILED United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT March 30, 2016 _ Elisabeth A. Shumaker Clerk of Court UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, No. 15-3196 v. (D.C. No. 6:13-CR-10197-EFM-3) (D. Kan.) DAPHNE MEWHINNEY, Defendant - Appellant. _ ORDER AND JUDGMENT* _ Before HARTZ, MURPHY, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges. _ Defendant Daphne MeWhinney appeals from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, which..
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FILED
United States Court of Appeals
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit
FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT March 30, 2016
_________________________________
Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
No. 15-3196
v. (D.C. No. 6:13-CR-10197-EFM-3)
(D. Kan.)
DAPHNE MEWHINNEY,
Defendant - Appellant.
_________________________________
ORDER AND JUDGMENT*
_________________________________
Before HARTZ, MURPHY, and PHILLIPS, Circuit Judges.
_________________________________
Defendant Daphne MeWhinney appeals from a judgment of the United States
District Court for the District of Kansas, which revoked her probation and sentenced her
to 18 months’ imprisonment. Discerning no nonfrivolous issues for appeal, defense
counsel submitted an Anders brief and a motion for leave to withdraw. See Anders v.
California,
386 U.S. 738, 744 (1967) (defense counsel may “request permission to
withdraw” where counsel conscientiously examines a case and determines that any
appeal would be “wholly frivolous”); United States v. Calderon,
428 F.3d 928, 930 (10th
*
After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined
unanimously that oral argument would not materially assist in the determination of
this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(a)(2); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore
ordered submitted without oral argument. This order and judgment is not binding
precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral
estoppel. It may be cited, however, for its persuasive value consistent with
Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1.
Cir. 2005); see also 10th Cir. R. 46.4(B)(1). Defendant filed a response, but the
government chose not to respond. After conducting our own “full examination of all the
proceedings,”
Anders, 386 U.S. at 744, we agree with counsel that there are no
nonfrivolous issues for appeal. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18
U.S.C. § 3742(a), we dismiss this appeal and grant counsel’s motion to withdraw.
Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. See 18 U.S.C. § 1343.
Based on an offense level of five and a criminal-history category of II, her guidelines
sentencing range was zero to six months. The court sentenced her to a three-year term of
probation and ordered her to pay a $100 special assessment and $2,104.08 in restitution.
One condition of her probation was to maintain employment unless excused by her
probation officer.
Defendant falsified job-search logs and failed to make restitution payments; so the
court modified her conditions of release to require that she reside in a residential re-entry
program for up to 120 days. On her second day, she absconded. The probation office
recommended that her probation be revoked, and the court issued a warrant for her arrest.
After almost a month on the lam, she was arrested.
At Defendant’s revocation hearing she admitted to violating three conditions of
her probation: absconding from the residential re-entry program, failing to maintain
employment, and failing to follow her probation officer’s instructions. The court found
that she had violated those conditions and revoked her probation. The court determined
that all three violations were Grade C violations, see USSG § 7B1.1(a)(3)(B); and with a
criminal-history category of II, her advisory guidelines range was four to ten months’
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imprisonment, see
id. § 7B1.4(a). The government recommended a 10-month term of
incarceration because of her exceptionally poor compliance with the terms of her
probation. Defense counsel requested that she be placed back on probation with
additional restrictions, pointing to (1) her responsibility to care for eight children,
including one child with special needs, and her elderly grandfather; (2) her diagnosis of
anxiety and depression; and (3) her other medical conditions, including a separated
shoulder and an ulcer.
The court sentenced her to 18 months’ imprisonment. After stating that it could
not recall another defendant who had absconded from a residential re-entry program so
quickly, it continued:
I would have to say that [Defendant] is certainly a finalist for the least
compliant person on supervision that I’ve seen. . . . [S]he appeared to
sabotage her attempts to gain employment with the way she dressed and the
way she would answer classes, that she made false reports as to her efforts to
find employment, that she, after complaining that she couldn’t get
employment due to transportation, was given bus passes but still would not
actually be looking for employment, that she would go through classes
designed to help her with employment and would either sleep through them
or be so argumentative about them that at least on one case she was asked to
leave the class. . . . [S]he falsely reported that she made applications which
she, in fact, did not make.
R. at 131–32. The court observed, “There’s nothing in the report that I’ve seen that
indicates, on really any single issue, she was compliant with her conditions of
supervision.” R. at 133. It concluded that a term of supervised release would be futile
and that the 18-month sentence “satisfies the objectives of sentencing I’m required to
consider in a case such as this where I’m revoking probation. I think it’s sufficient and
certainly not greater than necessary - - frankly, it’s slightly less than I came in here
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planning to do, to be honest with you - - that are necessary to reflect her performance . . .
while on probation . . . .” R. at 135.
Defense counsel’s Anders brief conceded the following: (1) there was no
procedural error because the court fulfilled its constitutional due-process requirements;
(2) there was no arguable error in the district court’s decision to revoke probation because
Defendant knowingly and voluntarily admitted the violations; and (3) her sentence was
both procedurally and substantively reasonable. In response to that brief, Defendant
“ask[s] for a new trial or a sentence reduction due to my health and my family.” Dkt.
1/11/16 response to Anders Brief at 4. She also contends that the judge failed to consider
her family and health needs and it was unfair that she was “punished for not having a job
considering everything.”
Id.
After conducting a full review of the record, we agree with counsel that there are
no nonfrivolous grounds for appeal. In particular, we note that the district court
considered the concerns expressed in Defendant’s brief in this court. At the revocation
hearing her counsel argued at length about her family obligations and medical conditions,
and the district court addressed those issues. We will not now on appeal reweigh those
considerations. See United States v. Lente,
759 F.3d 1149, 1158 (10th Cir. 2014) (“We
must . . . defer not only to a district court’s factual findings but also to its determinations
of the weight to be afforded to such findings.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). And
the district court did not impose an 18-month sentence simply because she did not have a
job. Rather, it properly considered that she had purposefully sabotaged her ability to
obtain a job and falsified her job logs.
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CONCLUSION
We can discern no nonfrivolous ground for appealing Defendant’s sentence. We
therefore DISMISS the appeal and GRANT counsel’s motion to withdraw.
Entered for the Court
Harris L Hartz
Circuit Judge
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