United States v. Robert Buss, No. 14-1913 (8th Cir. 2014)

Annotate this Case

Court Description: Criminal Case - sentence. District court did not abuse its discretion in sentencing below the calculated Guidelines range, due to the statutory maximum. Sentence within advisory guidelines range is presumptively reasonable. District court carefully considered the section 3553(a) factors in imposing the sentence and the presumptively reasonable sentence is affirmed.

Download PDF
United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 14-1913 ___________________________ United States of America lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee v. Robert Buss lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Dubuque ____________ Submitted: November 10, 2014 Filed: November 19, 2014 [Unpublished] ____________ Before RILEY, Chief Judge, BEAM and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges. ____________ PER CURIAM. Robert Buss challenges as unreasonable his 240-month sentence, imposed following his guilty plea to distributing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252. Buss alleges that the sentence, which was actually below the calculated Guidelines range of 292 to 365 months due to the statutory maximum, is substantively unreasonable. Buss argues the district court1 refused to give weight to the mitigating elements of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) unless they were "extraordinary," while not applying the same standard to the aggravating components of § 3553(a). We review the substantive reasonableness of Buss's sentence for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Pappas, 715 F.3d 225, 229 (8th Cir. 2013). We must first ensure that the district court committed no significant procedural error, and then consider "the totality of the circumstances" in determining if an abuse of discretion occurred. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). "A sentence within the advisory guidelines range is presumptively reasonable on appeal." Pappas, 715 F.3d at 230. Having thoroughly reviewed the record, we find Buss's arguments to be without merit. The district court carefully considered the § 3553(a) factors as applied to Buss, both mitigating and aggravating, in imposing the sentence. No abuse of discretion has occurred, and we affirm Buss's presumptively reasonable sentence. ______________________________ 1 The Honorable Linda R. Reade, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa. -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.