US v. Calvin Miller

Filing

UNPUBLISHED PER CURIAM OPINION filed. Originating case number: 3:11-cr-00020-GEC-BWC-1 Copies to all parties and the district court/agency. [998964320].. [12-4196]

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UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 12-4196

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
CALVIN EDWARD
Miller,

MILLER,

a/k/a

Killer,

a/k/a

Calvin

Elwood

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western
District of Virginia, at Charlottesville. Glen E. Conrad, Chief
District Judge. (3:11-cr-00020-GEC-BWC-1)

Submitted:

September 28, 2012

Decided:

October 22, 2012

Before SHEDD, DUNCAN, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Larry W. Shelton, Federal Public Defender, Joel C. Hoppe,
Assistant Federal Public Defender, Charlottesville, Virginia,
for Appellant.
Timothy J. Heaphy, United States Attorney,
Jean B.
Hudson,
Assistant
United
States
Attorney,
Robert
Abendroth,
Special
Assistant
United
States
Attorney,
Charlottesville, Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Calvin Edward Miller pled guilty to distribution of a
quantity

of

powder

cocaine,

21

U.S.C.A.

§ 841(a),

(b)(1)(C)

(West 1999 & Supp. 2012), and was sentenced to a term of eightyfour

months’

imprisonment.

Miller

appeals

contending

that

the

district

procedural

error

when

it

determined

that

Sentencing

Guidelines

Manual

offender,
although

U.S.
the

court

departed

court

downward

his

committed

in

he

sentence,
reversible

was

a

§ 4B1.1

sentencing

career
(2011),

him.

We

affirm.
Miller committed the instant offense in November 2010.
He had two prior felony convictions for cocaine distribution.
He contended at sentencing that his 1997 conviction, incurred
when he was seventeen, should not be treated as a predicate
conviction for career offender status because his sentence was
outside the applicable time period and could not be counted in
his criminal history.

For prior offenses committed before age

eighteen, if the sentence exceeded one year and one month, three
criminal history points apply if the sentence was imposed or if
any part of it, including imprisonment for probation violations,
was served within the fifteen-year period before the instant
offense.

USSG § 4A1.2(d)(1), (e)(1).

For the 1997 offense,

Miller was sentenced in 1999 to a ten-year term of imprisonment,
suspended, and four years’ probation.
2

He subsequently violated

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probation in 2000 and served one year in prison.

His probation

was revoked again in 2002 and 2004 and in each case, after a
period of detention before the revocation hearing, Miller was
sentenced to time served.
The

district

court

determined

that

Miller

had

been

imprisoned for at least one year and one month for the 1997
offense, making him a career offender.

The court then decided

that career offender status overstated Miller’s criminal record,
see USSG § 4A1.3, p.s., and that a sentence within the career
offender

Guidelines

unreasonable.

range

of

188-235

months

would

be

The court also decided that a sentence within the

Guidelines range that would apply if Miller were not a career
offender would understate his criminal record and be similarly
unreasonable.
factors

in

18

The court determined, in light of the sentencing
U.S.C.

§ 3553(a)

(2006),

that

a

sentence

of

eighty-four months was appropriate.
We review a sentence for reasonableness under an abuse
of discretion standard, Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51
(2007), which requires consideration of both the procedural and
substantive
States

v.

“deferential

reasonableness
Lynn,

592

F.3d

of

a

572,

abuse-of-discretion

sentence.
575

(4th

standard

Id.;

see

Cir.

2010).

applies

United

to

A
any

sentence, whether inside, just outside, or significantly outside
the Guidelines range.”

United States v. Rivera-Santana, 668
3

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F.3d 95, 100-01 (4th Cir. 2012) (internal citation and quotation
marks omitted), cert. denied, 2012 Westlaw 2805025 (U.S. Oct. 1,
2012).

In reviewing any variance, we must give due deference to

the sentencing court’s decision.

United States v. Diosdado-

Star, 630 F.3d 359, 366 (4th Cir.) (citing Gall, 552 U.S. at
56), cert. denied, 131 S. Ct. 2946 (2011).
are

subject

to

review

for

Procedural errors

harmlessness.

Puckett

v.

United

States, 556 U.S. 129, 141 (2009); United States v. Mehta, 594
F.3d 279, 283 (4th Cir. (2010).
Miller maintains that the government failed to prove
that he served more than one month in prison as a penalty for
his probation violations in 2002 or 2004, as opposed to time in
prison

“dictated

by

other

charges

and

the

circuit

court’s

scheduling constraints” which, he argues, should not be counted
for criminal history or career offender status.
on

United

States

v.

Latimer,

991

F.2d

Miller relies

1509,

1517

(9th

Cir.

1993), and United States v. Stewart, 49 F.3d 121, 125 (4th Cir.
1995).

Both

cases

are

distinguishable.

defendant’s

parole

was

confinement

in

community

imprisonment.
awaiting

his

Thus,
parole

incarceration.
the

a

defendant’s

revoked,

the

but

he

treatment

time

he

revocation

In

spent
hearing

Latimer,
sentenced

was
center

in

was

not
4

revoked

did

and

to

instead

of

federal
not

Latimer, 991 F.2d at 1510, 1517.
parole

the

he

detention
count

as

In Stewart,
received

no

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sentence

at

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all.

As

in

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Latimer,

the

defendant’s

detention

before his revocation hearing did not constitute a sentence of
imprisonment.

Stewart, 49 F.3d at 125.

By contrast, Miller’s

probation was revoked in 2002 and in 2004, and each time he
received

a

sentence

of

time

served.

Based

on

the

evidence

presented at sentencing, the district court did not clearly err
in finding that Miller served at least one month of imprisonment
following revocation of his probation in 2002 and 2004, and a
total sentence of imprisonment of at least one year and one
month

for

his

1997

drug

conviction.

Therefore,

Miller

was

correctly sentenced as a career offender.
Further,

any

error

in

the

district

court’s

determination was harmless because the court decided that the
appropriate sentence for Miller’s offense was within neither the
career offender Guidelines range nor the Guidelines range that
would apply if Miller were not a career offender.

In his reply

brief, Miller argues that resentencing is necessary because the
district court stated only that it would impose “about” the same
sentence, not precisely the same sentence, whether or not he was
a career offender.

Miller cites United States v. Lewis, 606

F.3d 193, 199 (4th Cir. 2010) (rejecting government argument for
application of an upwardly amended Guidelines provision on the
ground that to do so would violate the Ex Post Facto Clause).
Lewis is inapposite.

We are satisfied that resentencing is not
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required here because the district court correctly determined
that Miller was a career offender and exercised its discretion
to determine the appropriate sentence in light of the § 3553(a)
factors.
We therefore affirm the district court’s judgment.
dispense

with

oral

argument

because

the

facts

and

We

legal

contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the
court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED

6