United States v. Deonte Ellison, No. 22-2631 (8th Cir. 2023)
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Defendant pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of ammunition as a felon. The district court sentenced him to 296 months and one day of imprisonment. Defendant argued that the Sixth Amendment right to trial by jury forbids the district court to determine whether he committed three prior felonies on different occasion
The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment. The court explained that the district court sufficiently considered the statutory factors and made an individualized assessment based on the facts presented. In varying upward, the district court considered Defendant’s extensive criminal history and concluded that his criminal history category understated the likelihood of recidivism and the seriousness of his criminal history. Defendant’s criminal history scored 24 points under the guidelines, well above the 13 points required for placement in the highest criminal history category. Giving deference to the district court as required by Gall, the court concluded that the one-level variance and the overall sentence is not unreasonable in light of Section 3553(a).
Court Description: [Colloton, Author, with Melloy and Gruender, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Sentencing. The district court did not err in sentencing defendant as an armed career criminal as he had three qualifying predicate convictions; the district court is permitted to determine whether those felonies were committed on different occasions, and the Sixth Amendment does not forbid the court from making that determination; no error in imposing an upward departure under Guidelines Sec. 5K2.1 because a death resulted from defendant's conduct; defendant sentence, an upward variance, was based on an individualized assessment of the facts presented and was not substantively unreasonable.
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