United States v. Watson, No. 16-1357 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was sentenced to a year and a half in prison for escaping from a halfway house where he was serving federal time. On appeal, defendant argues for the first time that the district court did not have authority to make his sentence consecutive to another federal sentence that had not yet been imposed. The court concluded that Setser v. United States left open the question of whether the district court could make defendant's prison term for the escape consecutive to any sentence arising from the other federal charges pending against him. Because that means any error in this case is not plain, the court affirmed the judgment. The court left resolution of the issue for a case in which it is properly raised and preserved.
Court Description: Riley, Author, with Murphy and Smith, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. The question of whether the district court could make defendant's sentence for escape consecutive to any sentence arising from other federal charges pending against him is an open question and the district court did not plainly err in making the sentences consecutive; the court leaves resolution of the issue for a case in which it is properly raised and preserved.
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