Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca4-08-06363/USCOURTS-ca4-08-06363-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Sonji Prince Pabellon
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 08-6363

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

SONJI PRINCE PABELLON,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of

South Carolina, at Spartanburg. Henry M. Herlong, Jr., District

Judge. (7:98-cr-01169-HMH-2)

Submitted: May 22, 2008 Decided: May 30, 2008

Before MOTZ and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior

Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Sonji Prince Pabellon, Appellant Pro Se. Harold Watson Gowdy, III,

Elizabeth Jean Howard, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY,

Greenville, South Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:

Sonji Prince Pabellon appeals the district court’s order

granting in part her motion for reduction of sentence and reducing

her sentence from 121 months to 120 months. Pursuant to Amendment

706 to the Guidelines, which decreases by two levels the base

offense levels for crack cocaine offenses, the district court

reduced Pabellon’s previous offense level from 32 to 30. See U.S.

Sentencing Guidelines Manual (“USSG”) § 2D1.1 (2007) (Amendment

706); USSG § 1B1.10(c) (Mar. 3, 2008); United States v. Brewer, 520

F.3d 367, 373 (4th Cir. 2008). In light of her criminal history

category of I, Pabellon claims that she faced a potential

sentencing range of 97 to 121 months under the Guidelines. 

Pabellon notes that her previously imposed sentence of

121 months was at the bottom of the guideline range and therefore

contends that the district court should have reduced her sentence

to the bottom of the revised range, or to 97 months. We find this

argument to be without merit. As set forth in the district court’s

order, Pabellon’s amended guideline range was actually 120 to 121

months in light of the ten-year mandatory minimum sentence

applicable to her offense. See 21 U.S.C.A. § 841(b)(1)(A) (West

1999 & Supp. 2007). Despite Pabellon’s arguments to the contrary,

the district court lacked authority to sentence her below the

statutory mandatory minimum sentence as she requested. See United

States v. Allen, 450 F.3d 565, 568-69 (4th Cir. 2006).

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Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s order and the

resulting 120-month sentence. We dispense with oral argument

because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in

the materials before the court and argument would not aid the

decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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