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Parties Involved:
Donald Lee Colbert
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

FILL D 

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Unit.eel Stats& Court of Appealt Tenth Circuit 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

v. 

DONALD LEE COLBERT, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

FEBO 4 1993 

ROBERT L. HOECKER 

Clerk . 

No. 92-5132 

Before TACHA and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges, and SAFFELS, District 

Judge . ** 

Donald Lee Colbert pleaded guilty to one count of false 

representation of a Social Security number in violation of 42 

U.S .C. § 408 (a ) (7 ) (B) and was sentenced to twenty months 

imprisonment plus three years supervised release . Mr. Colbert 

appeals that sentence and the district court's failure t o credit 

his federal sentence for time served in state custody . We 

exercise jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and affirm. 

In June 1991, Colbert used a fictit ious Social Security 

number to obtain an Oklahoma driver's license under the assumed 

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall 

not be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, 

except for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of 

the case, res judicata, or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 

36.3. 

** Honorable Dale E. Saffels, Senior District Judge, United 

States District Court for the District of Kansas, sitting by 

designation. 

Appellate Case: 92-5132 Document: 010110165564 Date Filed: 02/04/1993 Page: 1 
name of Cleveland Freeman, Jr., open a bank account under that 

name, and pass insufficient funds checks totaling over $1500 to 

various northeast Oklahoma merchants. Tulsa Police Officers 

arrested Colbert on September 12, 1991, for uttering a forged 

instrument and held him in custody until the U.S. Attorney 

returned the indictment in this case on January 8, 1992. 

In his federal case, Colbert pleaded guilty to one count of 

false representation of a Social Security number in violation of 

42 U.S.C. § 408(a) (7) (B). At his sentencing hearing, the district 

court found that Colbert's calculated criminal history category of 

V underrepresented the seriousness of his past criminal conduct 

and his likelihood of recidivism. Specifically, Colbert's 

criminal history category did not include fifteen separate federal 

law violations in six separate criminal proceedings because they 

occurred over fifteen years prior to the instant offense. See 

United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines Manual, § 4Al.2 (e ) 

(Nov. 1992) . Several of those convictions were for the possession 

of stolen mail and other fraudulent activities. The court 

therefore departed upward from Colbert's criminal history category 

and imposed a twenty-year sentence -- exceeding the category V 

range by five years and the category VI range by two years. The 

court also denied Colbert's request for credit to his federal 

sentence for time spent in state custody on a state charge. On 

appeal, Colbert challenges the upward departure and the refusal to 

grant sentence credit. 

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We review an upward departure from the guidelines under a 

three-part test. See United States v. White, 893 F.2d 276, 277-78 

{10th Cir. 1990). We must determine: 

(1) whether the district court correctly identified factual 

circumstances warranting departure; (2) whether such 

circumstances actually exist; and (3) whether the degree o f 

departure is reasonable. 

United States v . Thornton, 922 F . 2d 1490, 1493 {10th Cir. 1991). 

We conclude that the upward departure was valid under this test . 

First, the court stated that it was departing upward because 

Colbert's prior convictions for "similar crimes," although over 

fifteen years old, indicated that his criminal history category of 

V did not adequately reflect the seriousness of the defendant's 

past criminal conduct or the likelihood or recidivism. This 

clearly articulated grounds for departure is appropriate under 

U.S.S . G. § 4Al.3. See United States v. Gardner, 905 F.2d 1432, 

1434- 35 {10th Cir.), cert. denied, 111 S. Ct. 202 (1990). 

Second, the district court's factual basis for departure was 

not clearly erroneous. United States v. Harris, 907 F.2d 121, 123 

{10th Cir. 1990). Although Colbert disputes any similarity 

between the old convictions and the present one, we conclude that 

a sufficient factual basis existed for the court to find that 

these convictions were similar and that they indicated a 

likelihood of recidivism. 

Third, we find the degree of departure to be reasonable . 

When the original criminal history category is inadequate, the 

sentencing court is "to use, as a reference, the guideline range 

for a d efendant with the criminal history category that the court 

thinks most closely r esembles the seriousness of the defendant's 

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criminal history." Id. Although departures beyond the sentence 

range for a category VI criminal history are reserved for 

exceptional circumstances, a court wishing to so depart may seek 

guidance by extrapolating the guidelines based on a hypothetical 

criminal history point value and the existing sentence ranges. 

United States v. Jackson, 921 F.2d 985, 993 (10th Cir. 1990); 

Gardner, 905 F.2d at 1438 . We find the sentence of twenty months, 

based on such a procedure, to be reasonable under the 

circumstances. Because Colbert's sentence satisfies the three 

requirements for upward departure under U.S.S.G . § 4Al.3, we 

affirm. 

Finally, Colbert challenges the district court's failure to 

credit his federal sentence for time spent in state custody on an 

unrelated charge. Although 18 U.S.C. § 3585(b) does provide 

authority for such a credit against his federal sentence, that 

determination is to be made initially by the Attorney General 

through the Bureau of Prisons. United States v. Wilson, 112 s. 

Ct. 1351, 1354-55 (1992) . It is clear, however, that, at the time 

of Colbert's sentencing, he had not presented this issue to the 

Attorney General. Accordingly, the district court made no 

determination in that regard, and we are similarly without 

authority to reach that issue at this time . 

AFFIRMED. The mandate shall issue forthwith. 

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ENTERED FOR THE COURT 

Deanell Reece Tacha 

Circuit Judge 

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