Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-07-02273/USCOURTS-ca8-07-02273-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
United States
Appellee
Mario Mandrell Williams
Appellant

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 07-2273

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

*

v. * Appeal from the United States

* District Court for the

Mario Mandrell Williams, * Northern District of Iowa.

*

Appellant. * [UNPUBLISHED]

___________

Submitted: March 7, 2008

Filed: March 10, 2008

___________

Before WOLLMAN, RILEY, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

Mario Williams pleaded guilty to one count of distributing about 23.18 grams

of cocaine within a protected area after having been convicted of two or more felony

drug offenses (Count 3) and conspiring to distribute cocaine and 5 grams of cocaine

base after having been convicted of two or more felony drug offenses (Count 9), in

violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B) & (C), 851, and 860. At sentencing,

Williams faced a mandatory life sentence for Count 3. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A)

(if any person violates § 860 after two or more convictions for felony drug offenses,

that person shall be sentenced to mandatory term of life imprisonment). Pursuant to

the government’s substantial-assistance departure motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(e)

Appellate Case: 07-2273 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/10/2008 Entry ID: 3410990
1

The Honorable Linda R. Reade, Chief Judge, United States District Court for

the Northern District of Iowa.

-2-

and U.S.S.G. § 5K1.1, the district court1

 granted a sentencing departure of 15%, using

470 months as the starting point for Williams’s life sentence. Accordingly, the court

sentenced Williams to concurrent prison terms of 400 months on Count 3 and 262

months on Count 9, to be followed by concurrent terms of 6 and 8 years of supervised

release.

Williams argues that the district court erred when it determined that his life

sentence was equivalent to 470 months for purposes of calculating his substantialassistance departure. Based on our prior decisions, however, we cannot say that the

court erred. See United States v. Jensen, 493 F.3d 997, 1000 (8th Cir. 2007) (stating

that 470 months, derived from updated empirical data of inmate life expectancy, is one

acceptable starting point for departure from life sentence), vacated on other grounds,

128 S. Ct. 1069 (2008) (in light of Gall v. United States, 128 S. Ct. 586 (2007));

United States v. Keller, 413 F.3d 706, 711 & n.5 (8th Cir. 2005) (concluding that it

was not error for district court to use starting point of 470 months).

Accordingly, we affirm Williams’s sentence.

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Appellate Case: 07-2273 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/10/2008 Entry ID: 3410990