Filed: Jul. 23, 2019
Latest Update: Mar. 03, 2020
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 18-4599 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. DELONTE JAMEL STEVENSON, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt. Peter J. Messitte, Senior District Judge. (8:17-cr-00443-PJM-1) Submitted: June 28, 2019 Decided: July 23, 2019 Before KEENAN and THACKER, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Summary: UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 18-4599 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. DELONTE JAMEL STEVENSON, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt. Peter J. Messitte, Senior District Judge. (8:17-cr-00443-PJM-1) Submitted: June 28, 2019 Decided: July 23, 2019 Before KEENAN and THACKER, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. ..
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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 18-4599
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
DELONTE JAMEL STEVENSON,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Greenbelt.
Peter J. Messitte, Senior District Judge. (8:17-cr-00443-PJM-1)
Submitted: June 28, 2019 Decided: July 23, 2019
Before KEENAN and THACKER, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit
Judge.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Megan E. Coleman, MARCUSBONSIB, LLC, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant.
Robert K. Hur, United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, Timothy F. Hagan, Jr.,
Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY,
Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
PER CURIAM:
Delonte Stevenson appeals the 66-month upward variance sentence imposed
following his guilty plea to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of
18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (2012). Stevenson asserts that the sentence is procedurally
unreasonable because the district court relied on uncharged conduct (burglary of a gun
store) and unreliable hearsay evidence, and substantively unreasonable because the
district court’s reasoning for the upward variance incorporated factors contemplated by
the advisory Sentencing Guidelines themselves. We affirm.
“We review a sentence for reasonableness ‘under a deferential abuse-of-discretion
standard.’” United States v. McCoy,
804 F.3d 349, 351 (4th Cir. 2015) (quoting Gall v.
United States,
552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007)). There is no dispute that the district court properly
calculated the Guidelines range, treated the Guidelines as advisory rather than mandatory,
gave the parties an opportunity to argue for an appropriate sentence, considered the
18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (2012) factors, and sufficiently explained the chosen sentence. See
Gall, 552 U.S. at 49-51. Contrary to Stevenson’s assertions on appeal, “there is no bar to
the use of hearsay at sentencing. . . . The trial court may properly consider
uncorroborated hearsay evidence that the defendant has had an opportunity to rebut or
explain.” United States v. Love,
134 F.3d 595, 607 (4th Cir. 1998) (internal quotation
marks omitted); see United States v. Crawford,
734 F.3d 339, 342 (4th Cir. 2013) (same).
And “clear Supreme Court and Fourth Circuit precedent hold[ ] that a sentencing court
may consider uncharged and acquitted conduct in determining a sentence, as long as that
conduct is proven by a preponderance of the evidence.” United States v. Grubbs,
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585 F.3d 793, 798-99 (4th Cir. 2009). Finally, we conclude that the district court did not
clearly err by finding that a preponderance of the evidence supported a finding that
Stevenson was involved in the gun store burglary. See United States v. Span,
789 F.3d 320, 325 (4th Cir. 2015) (stating standard of review and defining clear error).
Thus, Stevenson’s sentence is procedurally reasonable.
We next consider whether the sentence imposed is substantively reasonable under
“the totality of the circumstances, including the extent of any variance from the
Guidelines range.”
Gall, 552 U.S. at 51. When a district court imposes a sentence
outside of the Guidelines range, we “must consider the extent of the deviation and ensure
that the justification is sufficiently compelling to support the degree of the variance.”
United States v. Zuk,
874 F.3d 398, 409 (4th Cir. 2017) (internal quotation marks
omitted). But the district court need not find “extraordinary circumstances” to justify a
deviation from the Guidelines range.
Gall, 552 U.S. at 47.
In this case, the district court cited the nature of the offense, the characteristics of
Stevenson, the need to provide just punishment and adequate deterrence, and the need to
protect the public. And the district court specifically explained why the advisory
Guidelines were inadequate on the facts at hand. The district court did not abuse its
discretion in concluding that these circumstances justified a significant upward variance
from the advisory Guidelines range.
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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 this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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