United States v. Hebert, No. 14-31405 (5th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his sentence of 92 years of imprisonment after he pleaded guilty to a series of counts involving bank fraud. The court concluded that the district court did not clearly err in making a finding of second degree murder and the court rejected defendant's claims of evidentiary errors. The court also concluded that the district court did not err in calculating defendant's base offense level under the Sentencing Guidelines when the district court cross-referenced the guideline in U.S.S.G. 2A1.2, the second degree murder guideline. Further, the upward variance in defendant's sentence is substantively reasonable where, absent the application of the cross-reference, defendant's sentence falls within the statutory maximum of the 153 years he could have received but is higher than the six to seven year sentence his initial PSR calculated based on the Guidelines. Defendant's Fifth and Sixth Amendment challenges are foreclosed by the court's precedent because the court has held that courts can engage in judicial factfinding where the defendant’s sentence ultimately falls within the statutory maximum term. The court further found that defendant's sentence is not grossly disproportionate under the Eighth Amendment. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment.
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