US v. Donald Johnson, Sr.

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 1:11-cr-00017-TDS-1 Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [998842752].. [11-4952]

Appeal: 11-4952

Document: 23

Date Filed: 04/30/2012

Page: 1 of 4

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 11-4952

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
DONALD JOHNSON, SR.,
Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle
District of North Carolina, at Greensboro.
Thomas David
Schroeder, District Judge. (1:11-cr-00017-TDS-1)

Submitted:

April 24, 2012

Decided:

April 30, 2012

Before MOTZ and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior
Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Louis C. Allen, Federal Public Defender, John A. Dusenbury, Jr.,
Assistant Federal Public Defender, Greensboro, North Carolina,
for Appellant.
Lisa Blue Boggs, Assistant United States
Attorney, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Donald Johnson, Sr., appeals his conviction and fiftyseven month sentence after pleading guilty to one count of bank
robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) (2006).

Counsel

for Johnson filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386
U.S. 738 (1967), stating that there are no meritorious issues
for

appeal,

sentence.

but

questioning

the

reasonableness

of

Johnson’s

Johnson was informed of his right to file a pro se

supplemental brief, but has not done so.
chosen not to file a brief.
This

court

reasonableness,

The Government has

We affirm.

reviews

applying

the

Johnson’s

sentence

abuse-of-discretion

Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007).
consideration

of

both

the

procedural

F.3d 572, 575 (4th Cir. 2010).

Guidelines

court
range,

correctly
this

Court

standard.

This requires

and

substantive

Id.; United States v. Lynn, 592

reasonableness of the sentence.

district

for

After determining whether the

calculated
must

decide

Johnson’s
whether

advisory
the

court

considered the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (2006) factors, analyzed the
arguments presented by the parties, and sufficiently explained
the

selected

sentence.

Lynn,

592

F.3d

at

575-76;

States v. Carter, 564 F.3d 325, 330 (4th Cir. 2009).

United
If the

sentence is free of significant procedural error, this court
reviews the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.
2

Lynn,

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592 F.3d at 575; United States v. Pauley, 511 F.3d 468, 473 (4th
Cir. 2007).
After

thoroughly

reviewing

the

record,

we

conclude

that Johnson’s guilty plea was knowing and voluntary and that
the district court complied with Rule 11 in accepting the plea.
We

therefore

affirm

sentence,

we

calculated

the

applied

the

Johnson’s

conclude

that

Sentencing
§ 3553(a)

the

As

district

Guidelines
factors.

procedurally reasonable.
within-Guidelines

conviction.

range
The

for

court
and

Johnson’s
correctly

appropriately

sentence

is

thus

Further, we conclude that Johnson’s

sentence

is

substantively

reasonable.

See

United States v. Allen, 491 F.3d 178, 193 (4th Cir. 2007) (a
sentence

within

the

reasonable on appeal).
to

rebut

this

applicable

Guidelines

range

is

presumed

Counsel’s assertions are not sufficient

presumption.

We

therefore

affirm

Johnson’s

sentence.
In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the entire
record in this case and have found no meritorious issues for
appeal.

We thus affirm Johnson’s conviction and sentence.

This

court requires that counsel inform Johnson, in writing, of the
right to petition the Supreme Court of the United States for
further review.

If Johnson requests that a petition be filed,

but counsel believes that such a petition would be frivolous,
then counsel may move in this court for leave to withdraw from
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representation.

Date Filed: 04/30/2012

Page: 4 of 4

Counsel’s motion must state that a copy thereof

was served on Johnson.
We dispense with oral argument because the facts and
legal
before

contentions
the

court

are

adequately

and

argument

presented

would

not

in
aid

the
the

materials
decisional

process.

AFFIRMED

4