Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca11-15-13832/USCOURTS-ca11-15-13832-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
David Nolan Evans
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

________________________

No. 15-13832

Non-Argument Calendar

________________________

D.C. Docket No. 4:15-cr-00064-WTM-GRS-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff-Appellee,

 versus

DAVID NOLAN EVANS, 

 Defendant-Appellant.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Georgia

________________________

(May 10, 2016)

Before TJOFLAT, WILLIAM PRYOR and JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: 

David Nolan Evans appeals his sentence of 64 months of imprisonment 

imposed following his plea of guilty to using a telephone or other instrumentality

USCA11 Case: 15-13832 Date Filed: 05/10/2016 Page: 1 of 4
2

of interstate commerce to willfully threaten to kill or injure any individual or to 

damage a building by means of fire or an explosive. 18 U.S.C. § 844(e). Evans 

challenges the three-level enhancement of his sentence for targeting a government 

officer or employee. United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 3A1.2 (Nov. 

2014). We affirm.

As a condition of his state sentence of probation, Evans was required to 

complete drug treatment at the Savannah Day Reporting Center. The Center is an 

outpatient substance abuse treatment facility operated primarily by probation 

officers employed by the Georgia Department of Corrections. The Center is housed 

in the Southern Oaks Professional Building. 

On December 1, 2014, Evans called 911 and reported having “valuable 

information that the Southern Oaks Professional Building is going to be attacked 

between the days of 1 and 14, I don’t know what day, but this is very certain.” On 

December 22, 2014, Evans called 911 and stated, “Everybody at the Savannah Day 

Reporting Center will be killed today. If you think New York was bad, wait until 

you see this.” Evans visited the Center on January 12, 2015, and left an object in 

the men’s restroom that appeared to be an improvised-explosive device, but the 

object did not contain any explosives. Attached to the device was a letter stating, 

“Go boom pigs, shut this place down until after black history month or next one 

will be real, count on it niggers . . . Grand Dragon.” Later, Evans admitted to 

USCA11 Case: 15-13832 Date Filed: 05/10/2016 Page: 2 of 4
3

making the first call and planting the fake explosive device to avoid taking a 

urinalysis, which would have revealed that he had violated a term of his probation 

by using cocaine. 

The district court did not clearly err by enhancing Evans’s sentence for 

targeting a government officer or employee. A defendant is subject to a three-level 

increase in his base offense level if his “victim was a government officer or 

employee . . . and the offense of conviction was ‘motivated by such status.’” Id.

§ 3A1.2(a). The district court was entitled to find that Evans’s victims—whom he 

described as being “Everybody at the Savannah Day Reporting Center” and the 

“pigs . . . [in] this place”—were the probation officers and other government 

employees who were responsible for administering and reporting the results of the 

drug tests that Evans sought to avoid. See United States v. Bailey, 961 F.2d 180, 

182 (11th Cir. 1992); see also United States v. Bennett, 368 F.3d 1343, 1358 (11th 

Cir. 2004) (concluding that offense motivated by status of government officer 

when he and other officers announced their presence before executing warrant), 

cert. granted, vacated, and remanded on other ground, 543 U.S. 1110 (2005), 

opinion reinstated, 131 F. App’x 657 (11th Cir. 2005). Evans failed to object to, 

and is deemed to have admitted, the facts in his presentence investigation report 

that his victims included the employees of the Center, see United States v. Wade, 

458 F.3d 1273, 1277 (11th Cir. 2006), and he conceded at sentencing “that the 

USCA11 Case: 15-13832 Date Filed: 05/10/2016 Page: 3 of 4
4

individuals inside the Savannah Day Reporting Center . . . would be technical 

victims.” Because Evans issued the threats to prevent everyone in the Center from 

performing their roles in the probation program, the district court reasonably 

determined that his conduct was motivated by the officers’ and employees’ 

positions. See U.S.S.G. § 3A1.2 cmt. n.3.

We AFFIRM Evans’s sentence.

USCA11 Case: 15-13832 Date Filed: 05/10/2016 Page: 4 of 4