US v. Dymon Black, No. 13-4926 (4th Cir. 2014)
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UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 13-4926 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. DYMON LAQUINN BLACK, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Wilmington. James C. Dever III, Chief District Judge. (7:12-cr-00009-D-1) Submitted: July 31, 2014 Before TRAXLER, Judges. Chief Judge, Decided: and NIEMEYER and August 15, 2014 DIAZ, Circuit Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Thomas P. McNamara, Federal Public Defender, Stephen C. Gordon, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellant. Thomas G. Walker, United States Attorney, Jennifer P. May-Parker, Shailika K. Shah, Assistant United States Attorneys, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Dymon Black appeals from his 114-month sentence imposed after he pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to one count each of possession with intent to distribute marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (2012); and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (2012) ( firearm conviction ). Black s sole argument on appeal is that the district court imposed a substantively because range the for unreasonable district that sentence court conviction. nearly We on his firearm doubl[ed] affirm the conviction his Guidelines district court s judgment. Upon review of the parties briefs and the record, we conclude that the 108-month sentence on the firearm conviction, which represents a forty-eight-month upward variance from the advisory Guidelines range substantively unreasonable. for that conviction, is not When a district court has imposed a variant sentence, we consider the reasonableness of imposing a variance and the extent of the variance. Tucker, 473 F.3d 556, 561 (4th Cir. 2007). requires more substantial justification. United States v. A greater variance United Diosdado Star, 630 F.3d 359, 366 (4th Cir. 2011). States v. Generally, if the reasons justifying the variance are tied to [18 U.S.C.] § 3553(a) [(2012)] and are plausible, 2 the sentence will be deemed reasonable. Tucker, 473 F.3d at 561 (internal quotation marks and omitted). court adequately citation explained We Black s conclude sentence that and the district appropriately tied its rationale for the variant sentence to the § 3553(a) factors it deemed relevant. Thus, we find that the 108-month sentence imposed on Black s firearm conviction is reasonable. We therefore affirm the district court s judgment. dispense with contentions are oral argument adequately because presented in the the facts We and legal materials before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED 3
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