UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 17-4666

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

MICHAEL QUEEN,

Defendant - Appellant.

No. 17-4704

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

SOUFIAN AMRI,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at 

Alexandria. Leonie M. Brinkema, District Judge. (1:17-cr-00050-LMB-1; 1:17-cr-00050-

LMB-2)

Submitted: September 28, 2018 Decided: October 4, 2018
2

Before MOTZ, AGEE and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

Cary Citronberg, ZWERLING/CITRONBERG, PLLC, Alexandria, Virginia; Dontae L. 

Bugg, BUGG LAW FIRM PLLC, Fairfax, Virginia, for Appellants. Joseph Attias, 

National Security Division, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, 

Washington, D.C.; Tracy Doherty-McCormick, Acting United States Attorney, Gordon D. 

Kromberg, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES 

ATTORNEY, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
3

PER CURIAM:

In these consolidated cases, Soufian Amri and Michael Queen appeal their 

convictions and resulting 24-month sentences imposed following a bench trial on 

conspiracy, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (2012), obstruction of justice, in violation of 

18 U.S.C. § 1512(b)(3) (2012), and false statements, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)

(2012). On appeal, Amri and Queen challenge the district court’s reliance on evidence 

outside the stipulated record and the sufficiency of the evidence underlying their 

convictions, along with the district court’s decisions to deny Amri’s motion to suppress 

and to apply a Sentencing Guidelines enhancement for the federal crime of terrorism

pursuant to U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 3A1.4(a) (2016).

“This Court reviews evidentiary rulings for an abuse of discretion and will only 

overturn an evidentiary ruling that is arbitrary and irrational.” United States v. Cone, 714 

F.3d 197, 219 (4th Cir. 2013) (internal quotation marks omitted). Furthermore, 

“[e]videntiary rulings are subject to harmless error review.” United States v. McLean, 715 

F.3d 129, 143 (4th Cir. 2013). To find an error harmless, “we need only say with fair 

assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from 

the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error.” Id. (internal 

quotation marks omitted).

We first conclude that the district court did not err when it cited Amri’s education 

level and business background in its memorandum opinion. We reject the contention that 

this constitutes a structural error and find any such error harmless in light of the stipulated 
4

evidence. Relatedly, we conclude that the stipulated evidence sufficiently supported each 

of the convictions.

Next, we consider Amri’s challenge to the denial of his motion to suppress. When 

reviewing a district court’s decision on a motion to suppress, we examine “the court’s 

factual findings for clear error” and “its legal conclusions de novo.” United States v. 

Kehoe, 893 F.3d 232, 237 (4th Cir. 2018) (internal quotation marks omitted). Based on 

our independent review of the record, we perceive no error in the district court’s ruling.

Regarding the sentences imposed, we review any sentence, “whether inside, just 

outside, or significantly outside the Guidelines range,” through a “deferential abuse-ofdiscretion standard.” Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007). We must first “ensure 

that the district court committed no significant procedural error.” Id. at 51. “If, and only 

if, we find the sentence procedurally reasonable can we consider the substantive 

reasonableness of the sentence imposed under an abuse-of-discretion standard.” United 

States v. Carter, 564 F.3d 325, 328 (4th Cir. 2009) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

“Federal sentencing law requires the district judge in every case to impose ‘a sentence 

sufficient, but not greater than necessary, to comply with’ the purposes of federal 

sentencing, in light of the Guidelines and other [sentencing] factors.” Freeman v. United 

States, 564 U.S. 522, 529 (2011) (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) (2012)).

Nonetheless, “it is unnecessary to vacate a sentence based on an asserted guidelines 

calculation error if we can determine from the record that the asserted error is harmless.” 

United States v. McDonald, 850 F.3d 640, 643 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 138 S. Ct. 208 

(2017). “To apply this ‘assumed error harmlessness inquiry’ we require (1) knowledge 
5

that the district court would have reached the same result even if it had decided the 

guidelines issue the other way and (2) a determination that the sentence would be 

reasonable even if the guidelines issue had been decided in the defendant’s favor.” Id.

(internal quotation marks omitted).

Regarding the first prong, the record makes clear that the district court would have 

imposed the same sentence on Queen and Amri absent the disputed sentence enhancement.

Indeed, the district court observed that the terrorism enhancement “threw the guidelines 

into outer space,” and the court essentially disregarded the enhancement during the 

sentencing phase. (J.A. 397).*

 Rather, the district court imposed on Queen a “variant 

sentence” well below the Guidelines range because the “guidelines [were] way too high 

given [Queen’s] background and given the actual things” he did. (J.A. 409). Similarly, 

the district court imposed on Amri a sentence far below the Guidelines range because the 

terrorism enhancement made the range “ridiculous in terms of what is involved in this 

particular case.” (J.A. 424-25, 431-32).

Regarding the second prong, we find the 24-month sentences imposed on Queen 

and Amri substantively reasonable. The district court adequately explained its sentences 

as required under § 3553(a). The district court detailed the reasons compelling the 

sentences, namely the need for deterrence and the serious nature of the offenses. Because 

the district court made it clear that it would have given Queen and Amri the same sentence 

 * “J.A.” refers to Joint Appendix.
6

if the terrorism enhancement did not apply and the sentences imposed were substantively 

reasonable, any alleged Guidelines calculation error is harmless.

Accordingly, we affirm the judgments of the district court. We dispense with oral 

argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials 

before this court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED