Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca5-14-60724/USCOURTS-ca5-14-60724-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Shekeila Jones
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 14-60724

Summary Calendar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee

v.

SHEKEILA JONES,

Defendant-Appellant

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Southern District of Mississippi

USDC No. 3:13-CR-8-5

Before STEWART, Chief Judge, and DAVIS and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

Shekeila Jones pleaded guilty of conspiring to defraud the United States 

in connection with a scheme to create and file false and fraudulent income tax 

returns to induce payment of tax refunds by the Department of the Treasury. 

Jones was sentenced to a 15-month term of imprisonment and to a three-year 

period of supervised release, and she was ordered to make restitution to the 

Internal Revenue Service in the amount of $55,660.

 

* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not 

be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH 

CIR. R. 47.5.4.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

July 22, 2015

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

 Case: 14-60724 Document: 00513125526 Page: 1 Date Filed: 07/22/2015
No. 14-60724

2

Jones asserts that the district court erred in overruling her objection to 

the probation officer’s calculation of the amount of the loss in determining the 

guidelines sentence and restitution amount. She contends that the loss 

amount should not have included $36,600 related to five checks she cashed on 

behalf of her coconspirators because she has consistently denied that she knew 

that those funds had an illicit source.

The Government was required to prove the loss amount by 

a preponderance of the evidence, and the presentence report generally has 

sufficient indicia of reliability to permit the sentencing court to rely on it as 

evidence at sentencing. United States v. Ollison, 555 F.3d 152, 164 (5th Cir. 

2009). Jones had the burden of presenting rebuttal evidence showing that the 

presentence report was materially untrue, inaccurate, or unreliable. 

United States v. Rodriguez, 602 F.3d 346, 363 (5th Cir. 2010).

The district court found that Jones had actual knowledge that the 

$36,600 pecuniary loss had resulted from the offense and that Jones’s contrary 

assertions were not credible. See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1, comment. (n.3(A)). We 

conclude that those findings are plausible in light of the record as a whole and 

that Jones has not shown that the district court clearly erred. See United 

States v. Brooks, 681 F.3d 678, 713 (5th Cir. 2012); United States v. Harris, 597 

F.3d 242, 250 (5th Cir. 2010). The judgment is AFFIRMED.

 Case: 14-60724 Document: 00513125526 Page: 2 Date Filed: 07/22/2015