Filed: Nov. 16, 2009
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION NOV 16 2009 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 08-30434 Plaintiff - Appellee, D.C. No. CR-07-103-JDS v. MEMORANDUM * BASIL PETER HERBST, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana Jack D. Shanstrom, Senior District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted November 2, 2009 Portland, Oregon Before: FISHER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges, a
Summary: FILED NOT FOR PUBLICATION NOV 16 2009 MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 08-30434 Plaintiff - Appellee, D.C. No. CR-07-103-JDS v. MEMORANDUM * BASIL PETER HERBST, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Montana Jack D. Shanstrom, Senior District Judge, Presiding Argued and Submitted November 2, 2009 Portland, Oregon Before: FISHER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges, an..
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FILED
NOT FOR PUBLICATION NOV 16 2009
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, No. 08-30434
Plaintiff - Appellee, D.C. No. CR-07-103-JDS
v.
MEMORANDUM *
BASIL PETER HERBST,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of Montana
Jack D. Shanstrom, Senior District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted November 2, 2009
Portland, Oregon
Before: FISHER and PAEZ, Circuit Judges, and MOSKOWITZ, District Judge.**
Basil Peter Herbst (“Defendant”) appeals the district court’s judgment
imposing a sentence of seventy years for his conviction of nine counts of sexual
exploitation of children in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a), eight counts of sexual
exploitation of children in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(b), one count of
*
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by 9th Cir. R. 36-3.
**
The Honorable Barry Ted Moskowitz, United States District Judge
for the Southern District of California, sitting by designation.
transportation of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2), one
count of receipt of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2), one
count of possession of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 2252A(a)(5)(B), and one related count of criminal forfeiture under 18 U.S.C.
§ 2253(a)(3). We affirm.
Defendant challenges his sentence as unreasonable. “Regardless of whether
the sentence imposed is inside or outside the Guidelines range, the appellate court
must review the sentence under an abuse-of-discretion standard.” Gall v. United
States,
552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). The appellate court reviews only whether the
sentence was reasonable. United States v. Carty,
520 F.3d 984, 993 (9th Cir. 2008)
(en banc). “[O]nly a procedurally erroneous or substantively unreasonable
sentence will be set aside.”
Id.
The district judge did not commit any procedural errors in imposing the
seventy-year sentence because he sufficiently considered and explained the
sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). “[W]hen a judge decides simply to
apply the Guidelines to a particular case, doing so will not necessarily require
lengthy explanation.” Rita v. United States,
551 U.S. 338, 356 (2007). Where a
defendant presents “nonfrivolous reasons for imposing a different sentence,
however, the judge will normally go further and explain why he has rejected those
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arguments.”
Id. at 357. The judge’s explanation may be brief or it may be
extensive, depending on the circumstances of the case.
Id.
Here, although the district judge’s explanation was not lengthy, the record
demonstrates that the judge carefully considered the factors set forth in § 3553(a).
After initially acknowledging the applicable Guidelines range as the starting point,
the judge proceeded to address several § 3553(a) factors as he explained why he
chose to reject the Defendant’s sentence proposal and adopt a Guidelines sentence.
The judge did not specifically address every § 3553(a) factor, but a “district court
need not tick off each of the § 3553(a) factors to show that it has considered them.”
Carty, 520 F.3d at 992. Thus, the judge did not abuse his discretion by imposing a
procedurally improper sentence.
We also hold that the Defendant’s sentence was substantively reasonable.
An appellate court must “give substantial deference to the district court’s
determination because it is better situated . . . to determine an appropriate
sentence.” United States v. Carter,
560 F.3d 1107, 1120 (9th Cir. 2009).
Furthermore, a “correctly calculated Guidelines sentence will normally not be
found unreasonable on appeal.”
Id. (quoting Carty, 520 F.3d at 988). As
Defendant concedes, the district court correctly calculated the Guidelines range.
The district court reasonably concluded that a seventy-year sentence was necessary
to protect the public and to reflect the seriousness of the crime. Nothing in the
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Defendant’s circumstances “is so atypical as to put him outside the ‘minerun of
roughly similar’ cases considered by the Sentencing Commission in formulating
the Guidelines, nor are they ‘so special as to render [his] overall sentence
unreasonable.’”
Carter, 560 F.3d at 1121–22 (quoting United States v. Stoterau,
524 F.3d 988, 1002 (9th Cir. 2008)). Accordingly, the district court did not abuse
its discretion in imposing the within-Guidelines sentence.
AFFIRMED.
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