USA v. Tyrone Jackson

Filing

Opinion issued by court as to Appellant Tyrone Jackson. Decision: Affirmed. Opinion type: Non-Published. Opinion method: Per Curiam. The opinion is also available through the Court's Opinions page at this link http://www.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions.

Case: 15-15319

Date Filed: 05/31/2017

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 15-15319
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 1:14-cr-20059-KMM-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
TYRONE JACKSON,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
________________________
(May 31, 2017)
Before MARTIN, ROSENBAUM, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:

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After a jury trial, Tyrone Jackson was convicted of attempting to import and
to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. For those
offenses, the district court sentenced him to a total term of 115 months of
imprisonment, at the high end of his advisory guideline range. Jackson appeals his
sentence on the ground that it is greater than necessary to meet the purposes of
sentencing.

He asserts that the court overemphasized the length of his prior

criminal record, which, in his view, was composed of mostly minor offenses.
After review of the record and the parties’ briefs, we affirm Jackson’s sentence.
We review the reasonableness of a sentence under the deferential abuse-ofdiscretion standard. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007). We first ensure
that the district court committed no significant procedural error, such as improperly
calculating the guideline range or inadequately explaining the chosen sentence. Id.
at 51. We then examine whether the sentence was substantively reasonable in light
of the totality of the circumstances and the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors.
Id. Because Jackson does not raise any issue of procedural error on appeal, we
address substantive reasonableness only.
The district court must impose a sentence “sufficient, but not greater than
necessary to comply with the purposes” listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2), including
the need to reflect the seriousness of the offense, promote respect for the law,
provide just punishment for the offense, deter criminal conduct, and protect the
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public from the defendant’s future criminal conduct. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(2).
In imposing a particular sentence, the court must also consider the nature and
circumstances of the offense, the history and characteristics of the defendant, the
kinds of sentences available, the applicable guideline range, the pertinent policy
statements of the Sentencing Commission, the need to avoid unwarranted
sentencing disparities, and the need to provide restitution to victims.

Id.

§ 3553(a)(1), (3)–(7). The court must consider all of the § 3553(a) factors, but it
may, in its discretion, give greater weight to some factors over others. United
States v. Rosales-Bruno, 789 F.3d 1249, 1254 (11th Cir. 2015).
Our review of the district court’s choice of sentence is deferential. Id. at
1254–55. As a result, when a district court’s sentence falls within its discretion
and we do not necessarily agree with it, we will affirm it “even though we would
have gone the other way had it been our call.” United States v. Irey, 612 F.3d
1160, 1189 (11th Cir. 2010) (en banc) (quotation marks omitted). Nevertheless, a
sentencing court can abuse its considerable discretion by (1) failing to afford
consideration to relevant factors that were due significant weight; (2) giving
significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor; or (3) committing a clear
error of judgment in weighing the proper factors. Id. A district court’s unjustified
reliance on any one § 3553(a) factor may be indicative of an unreasonable
sentence. United States v. Crisp, 454 F.3d 1285, 1292 (11th Cir. 2006). The party
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challenging the sentence bears the burden of demonstrating that the sentence is
unreasonable “in light of the entire record, the § 3553(a) factors, and the
substantial deference afforded to sentencing courts.” Rosales-Bruno, 789 F.3d at
1256.
Finally, although we do not presume that a sentence falling within the
guideline range is reasonable, we ordinarily expect such a sentence to be
reasonable. United States v. Hunt, 526 F.3d 739, 746 (11th Cir. 2008). A sentence
imposed well below the statutory maximum penalty is another indicator of a
reasonable sentence. See United States v. Gonzalez, 550 F.3d 1319, 1324 (11th
Cir. 2008) (stating that the sentence was reasonable in part because it was well
below the statutory maximum).
Here, Jackson has not shown that his 115-month total sentence is
substantively unreasonable in light of the record and the § 3553(a) factors. See
Rosales-Bruno, 789 F.3d at 1256. The district court’s decision to give greater
weight to Jackson’s criminal history was within its discretion. See id. at 1254,
1261–63 (upholding a significant upward variance based in substantial part on the
defendant’s “lengthy criminal history”).

The record indicates that the court

listened to Jackson’s arguments at sentencing but determined that a sentence of 60
months’ imprisonment, the statutory minimum, was too short in light of Jackson’s
“life of one kind of crime or another,” for which he had received little to no
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punishment. The district court’s comments about Jackson’s criminal history were
supported by the record, which reflected that over the course of decades Jackson
had committed dozens of offenses, some of which were violent, and had received
jail sentences totaling only 190 days and probation.
Although the district court focused on Jackson’s criminal history, it did not
rely on that single factor to the exclusion of all other § 3553(a) factors. In addition
to his criminal history, the court cited the nature of Jackson’s offense, stating that a
large quantity of drugs was involved; the need to promote respect for the law and
to provide deterrence, stating that state courts’ prior treatment of Jackson did not
seem to impress on him the importance of conforming his behavior to the law; and
the need to protect society, stating that he had been a disruptive and destructive
force in his community. See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1), (2)(A)–(C). Thus, the record
shows that the court considered Jackson’s criminal history in conjunction with
other pertinent § 3553(a) factors.1
The weight to be accorded the § 3553(a) factors was a matter for the district
court, see Rosales-Bruno, 789 F.3d at 1254, and Jackson has not shown that the

1

We note that the district court may have committed plain Tapia error by considering
rehabilitation and drug treatment when deciding on the length of the sentence of imprisonment.
See United States v. Vandergrift, 754 F.3d 1303, 1309–10 (11th Cir. 2014) (applying the
Supreme Court’s decision in Tapia v. United States, 564 U.S. 319 (2011)). Nevertheless, given
the court’s focus on Jackson’s criminal history and the other proper § 3553(a) factors, Jackson is
not entitled to relief on plain-error review because the record contains no reason to believe that
Jackson’s “sentence would have been different but for the court’s consideration of
rehabilitation.” See id.
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district court make a clear error in judgment by arriving at an unreasonable
sentence based on the facts of this case, see Irey, 612 F.3d at 1190. That the total
115-month sentence is a reasonable one is further supported by the fact that it was
both within the advisory guideline range and well below the statutory maximum of
40 years. See Hunt, 526 F.3d at 746; Gonzalez, 550 F.3d at 1324. Accordingly,
we affirm Jackson’s total sentence as substantively reasonable.
AFFIRMED.

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