United States v. Kirlin, No. 16-1071 (8th Cir. 2017)
Annotate this CaseThe Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's concurrent sentences based on drug and felony related convictions, holding that the district court did not err, much less plainly err, in declining to reduce defendant's offense level for acceptance of responsibility under USSG 3E1.1. In this case, defendant never accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct and did not attempt to plead guilty. The court also held that the district court committed no procedural error where it expressly considered the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors and their applicability to defendant's case. Furthermore, the district court did not abuse its discretion by imposing an upward variance, and the sentence was substantively reasonable.
Court Description: Shepherd, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Gruender, Circuit Judge] Criminal case - Sentencing. Defendant has failed to show the district court erred, much less plainly erred, in declining to reduce his offense level for acceptance of responsibility as he put the government to its burden of proof by going to trial and failed to take any of the actions identified in the commentary to Guidelines Sec. 3E1.1; the district court considered the 3553(a) factors and adequately explained its decision to impose an upward variance; defendant's sentence was not substantively unreasonable.
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