Filed: Dec. 07, 2005
Latest Update: Feb. 12, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 04-4788 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus CHARLES MARQUISE AUDREY, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Charlotte. Graham C. Mullen, Chief District Judge. (CR-03-128) Submitted: August 22, 2005 Decided: December 7, 2005 Before NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, and KING, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Mark P. Foster,
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 04-4788 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, versus CHARLES MARQUISE AUDREY, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Charlotte. Graham C. Mullen, Chief District Judge. (CR-03-128) Submitted: August 22, 2005 Decided: December 7, 2005 Before NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, and KING, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Mark P. Foster, ..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 04-4788
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
versus
CHARLES MARQUISE AUDREY,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western
District of North Carolina, at Charlotte. Graham C. Mullen, Chief
District Judge. (CR-03-128)
Submitted: August 22, 2005 Decided: December 7, 2005
Before NIEMEYER, MICHAEL, and KING, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Mark P. Foster, Jr., NIXON, PARK, GRONQUIST & FOSTER, P.L.L.C.,
Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Gretchen C. F. Shappert,
United States Attorney, Robert J. Gleason, Assistant United States
Attorney, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
See Local Rule 36(c).
PER CURIAM:
Charles Marquise Audrey pled guilty to three counts of
possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 922(g) (2000). He was sentenced to forty-one months of
imprisonment on each count, to run concurrently. For the reasons
that follow, we affirm.
Audrey does not challenge his conviction. Audrey claims
that the district court violated his Sixth Amendment rights by
enhancing his sentence based on facts not alleged in the indictment,
not admitted by Audrey, and not found by a jury beyond a reasonable
doubt, in violation of United States v. Booker,
125 S. Ct. 738
(2005). Because Audrey preserved this issue by objecting to the
presentence report based upon Blakely v. Washington,
542 U.S. 296
(2004), this court’s review is de novo. See United States v.
Mackins,
315 F.3d 399, 405 (4th Cir. 2003) (“If a defendant has made
a timely and sufficient Apprendi[1] sentencing objection in the
trial court, and so preserved his objection, we review de novo.”).
When a defendant preserves a Sixth Amendment error, this court “must
reverse unless [it] find[s] this constitutional error harmless
beyond a reasonable doubt, with the Government bearing the burden
of proving harmlessness.”
Id. (citations omitted); see United
States v. White,
405 F.3d 208, 223 (4th Cir. 2005).
1
Apprendi v. New Jersey,
530 U.S. 466 (2000).
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In Booker, the Supreme Court held that the mandatory
manner in which the federal sentencing guidelines required courts
to impose sentencing enhancements based on facts found by the court
by a preponderance of the evidence violated the Sixth Amendment.
Id. at 746, 750 (Stevens, J., opinion of the Court). The Court
remedied the constitutional violation by severing two statutory
provisions, 18 U.S.C.A. § 3553(b)(1) (West Supp. 2005) (requiring
sentencing courts to impose a sentence within the applicable
guideline range), and 18 U.S.C.A. § 3742(e) (West 2000 & Supp. 2005)
(setting forth appellate standards of review for guideline issues),
thereby making the guidelines advisory. See United States v.
Hughes,
401 F.3d 540, 546 (4th Cir. 2005) (citing
Booker, 125 S. Ct.
at 756-67 (Breyer, J., opinion of the Court)).
After Booker, courts must calculate the appropriate
guideline range, consider the range in conjunction with other
relevant factors under the guidelines and 18 U.S.C.A. § 3553(a), and
impose a sentence. If a court imposes a sentence outside the
guideline range, the district court must state its reasons for doing
so.
Hughes, 401 F.3d at 546. This remedial scheme applies to any
sentence imposed under the mandatory guidelines, regardless of
whether the sentence violates the Sixth Amendment.
Id. at 547
(citing Booker, 125 S. Ct. at 769 (Breyer, J., opinion of the
Court)).
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Here, the district court sentenced Audrey under the then—
mandatory federal sentencing guidelines and enhanced his base
offense level of fourteen by two levels because the offense involved
four firearms and an additional two levels because a firearm was
stolen. The district court then applied a three-level adjustment
for acceptance of responsibility, thus placing Audrey’s total
offense level at fifteen. Based on his criminal history category
of VI, Audrey’s guideline range was 41 to 51 months of imprisonment.
USSG Ch. 5, Pt. A (Sentencing Table). The district court sentenced
him to 41 months in prison.
Without the stolen firearm enhancement,2 and without the
reduction for acceptance of responsibility, see United States v.
Evans,
416 F.3d 298, 300 n.4 (4th Cir. 2005), Audrey’s offense level
would have been sixteen. Audrey’s guideline range would thus have
been 46 to 57 months of imprisonment. USSG Ch. 5, Pt. A (Sentencing
Table). Because that guideline range is higher than the 41 month
sentence Audrey received, the government has met its burden of
establishing that any Booker error is harmless.
2
Audrey does not challenge the enhancement for the number of
firearms involved. Nor would such a challenge change the outcome
of this appeal. Because the indictment to which Audrey pled guilty
described that the offense involved four firearms, the two-level
enhancement of his base offense level on account of the number of
firearms involved in his offense was properly based upon conduct to
which Audrey admitted.
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Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s judgment. 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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