United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 19-3237

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United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Shannon R. Thomas

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant

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Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City

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 Submitted: June 15, 2020

Filed: July 9, 2020

[Unpublished] 

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Before LOKEN, ARNOLD, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. 

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PER CURIAM.

Over the course of about three months, Shannon Thomas and others committed

a string of armed robberies in the Kansas City area. The robberies typically involved

three men storming into a business with weapons drawn and demanding cash. They

often pointed guns at their victims' heads, verbally threatened them with death, and
demanded that they comply with orders. The crime spree ended when authorities

confronted Thomas and his confederates immediately after a robbery when they were

trying to escape. Thomas surrendered after officers fired a gun at him. One of

Thomas's coconspirators was shot and killed during the encounter.

A jury convicted Thomas of a host of crimes as a result, namely, conspiracy to

commit robbery, see 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a), ten counts of robbery, see id. and § 2, and

one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, see id. §§ 922(g)(1) and

924(a)(2). The jury also convicted him of ten counts of possessing a firearm in

furtherance of a crime of violence, see id. §§ 924(c)(1)(A)(ii), (c)(1)(C), and 2, and

since Thomas brandished a firearm, federal law required him to serve at least seven

additional years (84 months) in prison for each of these ten counts. See id. at

§ 924(c)(1)(A)(ii).

The Guidelines range for Thomas's non-brandishing convictions was 87–108

months in prison. The Guidelines recommended 84 additional months in prison on

each of the ten brandishing counts, see USSG § 2K2.4(b), effectively making the

Guidelines range 927–948 months in prison. Thomas's attorney requested that the

district court1

 sentence Thomas to only 71 years in prison (852 months) because

Thomas never fired a gun during the robberies. The government requested that the

district court sentence Thomas to 93 years in prison on all of the counts except the final

brandishing count, for which the government sought a life sentence. The government

emphasized that Thomas and his coconspirators had gone on a violent crime spree and

that it took a shootout with police to stop them. It also noted that Thomas often placed

victims on their knees, put a gun to their heads, and threatened to kill them if they

didn't give him what he wanted. In addition, Thomas had a history of robberies and

1The Honorable Greg Kays, United States District Judge for the Western District

of Missouri.

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was on parole for robbery and armed criminal action when he participated in the

robberies that led to the convictions here.

The government also highlighted Thomas's reprehensible behavior toward the

court and the judicial process. A psychologist who performed a pretrial evaluation of

Thomas opined that he was feigning mental illness. Thomas nevertheless continued his

act during the court proceedings, including at trial and sentencing, and the district court

had to order his removal several times after Thomas routinely shouted gibberish,

interrupted, and failed to answer questions. While in a nearby room where he could

watch court proceedings, Thomas defecated and smeared his feces all about, and he

threatened the court during the sentencing hearing, despite that the record appears to

show that the district court exhibited great patience toward Thomas, as did all the

attorneys involved, whom we commend for their efforts.

The district court sentenced Thomas to 108 months' imprisonment on the nonbrandishing counts followed by consecutive 84-month sentences on nine of the ten

brandishing counts. On the final brandishing count, the court sentenced Thomas to life

in prison, making the total sentence 864 months' imprisonment followed by a life

sentence. After explaining that it had considered all the sentencing criteria in 18 U.S.C.

§ 3553(a), the court emphasized that the conspiracy involved numerous robberies, that

Thomas committed these robberies while on parole for robbery and armed criminal

action, that Thomas was the most aggressive coconspirator, and that his behavior in the

courtroom reflected a lack of remorse. The court also considered a life sentence

appropriate since a coconspirator was killed and since Thomas did not surrender until

police shot at him.

On appeal Thomas challenges the substantive reasonableness of his sentence.

We review sentences, both inside and outside of the Guidelines range, under a

deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461

(8th Cir. 2009) (en banc). "Substantive review is narrow and deferential; it will be the

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unusual case when we reverse a district court sentence—whether within, above, or

below the applicable Guidelines range—as substantively unreasonable." United States

v. Vanhorn, 740 F.3d 1166, 1169 (8th Cir. 2014).

Thomas concedes that a 948-month sentence would have been reasonable, but

he maintains that a life sentence on the final brandishing count went too far and was

unreasonable. He doesn't offer much support for this conclusion other than to contend

that the district court gave the death of Thomas's coconspirator too much weight. But

the court gave myriad reasons, beyond the coconspirator's death, why a life sentence

was appropriate. And though some of these other reasons were already taken into

account when calculating Thomas's Guidelines range, they could still "nevertheless

form the basis of a variance." United States v. Thorne, 896 F.3d 861, 865 (8th Cir.

2018) (per curiam). Indeed, the record shows that Thomas is a violent felon who has

stopped at nothing to get what he wants. We therefore cannot say that the district court

abused its discretion.

Affirmed.

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