United States v. Mario Cunningham, No. 08-3615 (8th Cir. 2009)
Annotate this CaseCourt Description: Criminal Case - sentence. District court did not err in denying safety- valve relief by concluding defendant was not entirely forthright about matters that were material and relevant to his offense.
Download PDF
United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT ___________ No. 08-3615 ___________ United States of America, Appellee, v. Mario L. Cunningham, Appellant. * * * * Appeal from the United States * District Court for the Eastern * District of Arkansas. * [UNPUBLISHED] * * ___________ Submitted: March 9, 2009 Filed: April 1, 2009 ___________ Before GRUENDER, ARNOLD, and BENTON, Circuit Judges. ___________ PER CURIAM. Mario Cunningham appeals from the sentence of five years' imprisonment that the district court1 imposed after Mr. Cunningham pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute five grams of cocaine base, see 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 846. Mr. Cunningham raises only one issue on appeal, namely, whether the district court erred in denying him safety-valve relief under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f). We affirm. 1 The Honorable James M. Moody, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Mr. Cunningham's sentence was the minimum permitted by the applicable statute, unless he could demonstrate that the district court was authorized to sentence him to a lesser term based on § 3553(f), see United States v. Sanchez, 475 F.3d 978, 980 (8th Cir. 2007). Among the things that Mr. Cunningham had to show to entitle him to this dispensation was that he had "truthfully provided to the Government all information and evidence [he] has concerning the offense or offenses that were part of the same course of conduct." See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(5); see also U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2(5). The district court gave Mr. Cunningham a chance at his public sentencing hearing and in camera to carry this burden; the court listened to his testimony but concluded that Mr. Cunningham had not been completely forthcoming and so denied him relief. We have carefully read the transcripts of the proceedings below and conclude that the district court did not err in holding that Mr. Cunningham did not carry his burden. We note particularly that the court was unconvinced that Mr. Cunningham, after having dealt in drugs "over a long period of time," could not "recall with better specificity at least some of the customers he had." We detect no error in this logic and in the district court's conclusion that Mr. Cunningham had not been entirely forthright about matters that were material and relevant to his offense. Affirmed. ______________________________ -2-
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
