Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-09-02538/USCOURTS-ca8-09-02538-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Michael Darnell Cooper
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

1

The Honorable James M. Moody, United States District Judge for the Eastern

District of Arkansas.

United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

___________

No. 09-2538

___________

United States of America, *

*

Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the

* Eastern District of Arkansas.

Michael Darnell Cooper, *

* [UNPUBLISHED]

Appellant. *

___________

Submitted: March 5, 2010

Filed: March 24, 2010

___________

Before BYE, RILEY, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

___________

PER CURIAM.

Michael Darnell Cooper (Cooper) pled guilty to possessing with intent to

distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841. The

district court1

 determined that Cooper was a career offender under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1,

based in part on a previous Arkansas felony conviction for intimidating a witness.

The court imposed a below-Guidelines-range sentence of 240 months in prison and

5 years of supervised release. On appeal, Cooper’s counsel moved to withdraw and

filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), questioning whether the

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witness-intimidation conviction was a crime of violence under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.2(a),

and whether Cooper’s sentence was reasonable. Cooper requested appointment of

new counsel on appeal and filed a pro se supplemental brief, in which he asserts that

he did not receive the revised presentence report (PSR) until 30 minutes before the

sentencing hearing and his counsel was ineffective. 

We conclude the district court properly determined Cooper was a career

offender because we agree his witness-intimidation conviction was a crime of

violence. See U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1(a) (explaining a defendant is a career offender if,

among other things, he has at least two prior felony convictions for either a crime of

violence or a controlled substance offense), § 4B1.2(a)(1) (stating an offense is a

crime of violence if it “has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of

physical force against the person of another”); United States v. Wilson, 562 F.3d 965,

967 (8th Cir. 2009) (applying de novo review). Because the Arkansas

witness-intimidation statute encompasses threats against both persons and property,

underlying judicial records of Cooper’s conviction may be examined to determine

whether he was convicted of threatening a person or property. See Ark. Code Ann.

§ 5-53-109 (declaring a person intimidates a witness if he threatens the witness to

influence his testimony); Ark. Code Ann. § 5-53-101(6) (defining “threat” as menace

to use physical force against a person or to harm a person with respect to property,

health, safety, business, calling, career, financial condition, reputation, or personal

relationship); United States v. Salean, 583 F.3d 1059, 1061 (8th Cir. 2009) (holding

that when a statute proscribes discrete, alternative sets of elements, one or more of

which is not generically a violent felony, review of certain judicial records is

permitted to determine whether the defendant was in fact convicted of the violentfelony alternative), cert. denied, 78 U.S.L.W. 3482 (U.S. Feb. 22, 2010) (No.

09-8658); see also United States v. Williams, 537 F.3d 969, 971 (8th Cir. 2008) (this

court has never recognized a difference between “crime of violence” and “violent

felony”). Uncontested portions of the PSR indicated Cooper’s witness-intimidation

conviction was based on his threatened use of physical force against a person, namely,

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threatening to kill a witness. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 32(i)(3)(A) (stating at sentencing,

the court may accept any undisputed portion of the PSR as fact); United States v.

Davis, 583 F.3d 1081, 1095-96 (8th Cir. 2009) (“[u]nless a defendant objects to a

specific factual allegation contained in the PSR, the court may accept that fact as true

for sentencing purposes”), cert. denied, 78 U.S.L.W. 3481 (U.S. Feb. 22, 2010) (No.

09-8480); see also United States v. McCall, 439 F.3d 967, 974 (8th Cir. 2006) (en

banc) (concluding that when a statute punishes both violent and nonviolent conduct,

courts may look to the unobjected-to PSR description of the prior offense conduct, so

long as the PSR does not expressly state it relied on impermissible sources, such as

police reports), abrogated on other grounds by Begay v. United States, 553 U.S. 137

(2008).

We also find no abuse of discretion in the sentence. See United States v.

Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (listing the factors that

constitute an abuse of discretion); cf. United States v. Sicaros-Quintero, 557 F.3d 579,

583 (8th Cir. 2009) (according a presumption of reasonableness on appeal to a

sentence at the bottom of the Guidelines range). 

As to Cooper’s additional pro se arguments, any error arising from his receipt

of the revised PSR was waived or harmless because Cooper did not request a

continuance or show any prejudice. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 32(e)(2), and 52(a); United

States v. Turner, 898 F.2d 705, 714 (9th Cir. 1990) (holding the late delivery of the

PSR was harmless error, absent any showing of prejudice). We decline to consider

Cooper’s ineffective-assistance claim at this time. See United States v.

Ramirez-Hernandez, 449 F.3d 824, 826-27 (8th Cir. 2006) (explaining

ineffective-assistance claims are best litigated in 28 U.S.C. § 2255 proceedings). 

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Finding no nonfrivolous issue for appeal, see Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 80

(1988), we grant counsel’s motion to withdraw, deny Cooper’s motion to replace

counsel, and affirm the judgment. 

______________________________

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