USA v. John Raftopoulo
Filing
Opinion issued by court as to Appellant John Henry Raftopoulos. Decision: Affirmed. Opinion type: Non-Published. Opinion method: Per Curiam.
Case: 13-12703
Date Filed: 02/25/2014
Page: 1 of 3
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 13-12703
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 6:12-cr-00192-JA-GJK-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
JOHN HENRY RAFTOPOULOS,
Defendant-Appellant.
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Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
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(February 25, 2014)
Before HULL, MARCUS and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
John Raftopoulos appeals his sentence of 120 months imprisonment,
following his plea of guilty to robbery of a bank using force and violence or
Case: 13-12703
Date Filed: 02/25/2014
Page: 2 of 3
intimidation. See 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Raftopoulos argues that his sentence is
unreasonable. We affirm.
Raftopoulos, a career offender, walked into a bank in Palm Beach, Florida,
with a black pouch strapped to his body and passed a note to a teller that stated as
follows: “I AM WILLING TO DIE FOR THIS MONEY. ARE YOU. ALL THE
MONEY – STACK! NO DYE PACK-TRANSMITTER.” With money in hand,
Raftopoulos glanced at the teller and patted his black pouch. Raftopoulos had a
criminal history of VI that included prior convictions for bank robbery and
possession by a felon of a firearm equipped with a silencer. Raftopoulos blamed
his crimes on various addictions, but the district court found that he had a “pattern
of criminal conduct [beginning at age 14 that] [was] interrupted primarily by time
in prison.”
The district court reasonably determined that a sentence at the low end of
Raftopoulos’s advisory guideline range of 120 to 150 months of imprisonment was
necessary to address his crime; his lack of respect for the law; his history of
offenses involving “force and violence”; and to prevent him from committing
future similar crimes that endangered the public. See United States v. Talley, 431
F.3d 784, 788 (11th Cir. 2005). Moreover, Raftopoulos faced a maximum
statutory penalty of 20 years, but was incorrectly assigned an offense level of 29
instead of an offense level of 32, see United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual
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Case: 13-12703
Date Filed: 02/25/2014
Page: 3 of 3
§ 4B1.1(b) (Nov. 2012), which would have resulted in a guidelines range between
151 and 188 months of imprisonment, id. ch.5, pt. A. The district court did not
abuse its discretion in imposing a sentence of 120 months, which is well below the
statutory maximum penalty for Raftopoulos’s offense. See United States v.
Gonzalez, 550 F.3d 1319, 1324 (11th Cir. 2008).
We AFFIRM Raftopoulos’s sentence.
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