United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 14-2823

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United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Antione Dion Lewis

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant

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Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis

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 Submitted: March 9, 2015

 Filed: July 20, 2015 

[Unpublished]

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Before MURPHY, MELLOY, and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

Antione Dion Lewis pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin, in violation

of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846. At sentencing, the district court1

 determined that Lewis

1

The Honorable Carol E. Jackson, United States District Judge for the Eastern

District of Missouri.
was a career offender under the Guidelines based on his previous state court

convictions for aggravated battery and distribution of a controlled substance. The

district court sentenced Lewis to 188 months imprisonment, the low end of his

Guidelines range. Lewis now appeals from his sentence. Having jurisdiction under

28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. 

Lewis first argues that the district court erred in determining that he is a career

offender. To be a career offender under the Guidelines, a defendant must have, among

other things, “at least two prior felony convictions of either a crime of violence or a

controlled substance offense.” United States Sentencing Commission, Guidelines

Manual, § 4B1.1(a). Lewis contends that his prior controlled substance offense does

not count toward this requirement because the Missouri state court in which he pled

guilty to that offense suspended the imposition of his sentence and placed him on

probation. Lewis does not dispute that a suspended imposition of sentence qualifies

as a conviction under the Guidelines. See USSG § 4B1.2, comment. (n.1) (defining

a “prior felony conviction” in part as “a prior adult federal or state conviction for an

offense”); USSG § 4A1.2(a)(4) (stating that “convicted of an offense” “means that the

guilt of the defendant has been established, whether by guilty plea, trial, or plea of

nolo contendere”). But he asserts that a suspended imposition of sentence is not

treated as a conviction under Missouri law, see Yale v. City of Independence, 846

S.W.2d 193, 194 (Mo. 1993) (en banc), and that the district court violated the Full

Faith and Credit Clause and the Full Faith and Credit Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1738 (applying

principles of full faith and credit to federal courts), when it applied the Guidelines—as

opposed to Missouri law—to determine that his controlled substance offense qualified

as a prior conviction under section 4B1.1. We review Lewis’s claim de novo. United

States v. Evans, 738 F.3d 935, 936 (8th Cir. 2014) (per curiam).

We are not convinced by Lewis’s argument. First, “[t]he Full Faith and Credit

Clause is . . . not binding on federal courts . . . .” Univ. of Tenn. v. Elliott, 478 U.S.

788, 799 (1986). Second, other circuits have repeatedly held that “the principles that

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underlie the Full Faith and Credit Act are simply not implicated when a federal court

endeavors to determine how a particular state criminal proceeding is to be treated, as

a matter of federal law, for the purpose of sentencing the defendant for a distinct and

unrelated federal crime.” United States v. Fazande, 487 F.3d 307, 308-09 (5th Cir.

2007) (per curiam); United States v. Jones, 415 F.3d 256, 265 (2d Cir. 2005) (“[T]he

principles of federalism and comity embodied in the full faith and credit statute are not

endangered when a sentencing court, not questioning the propriety of the state’s

determination in any way, interprets how to apply [the state’s adjudication] to a

Guidelines analysis.” (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)); United States

v. Guthrie, 931 F.2d 564, 571 (9th Cir. 1991) (“We conclude doctrines such as Full

Faith and Credit . . . are inapplicable in this context, where the issue is the role of prior

state convictions in a federal sentencing scheme.”); United States v. Carter, 186 F.

App’x 844, 847 (10th Cir. 2006) (unpublished) (“[T]he characterization of state court

judgments to determine their consequences under the United States Sentencing

Guidelines is a federal question. It does not accord a state judgment less than full faith

and credit for a federal court to determine its effect on a subsequent federal sentence

under federal law.”). We find the reasoning in these cases persuasive. Thus we

conclude the district court did not err in applying the Guidelines to determine Lewis’s

status as a career offender.

This conclusion is supported by our cases holding that a suspended imposition

of sentence qualifies as a final conviction for the purposes of 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)

(providing sentencing enhancement for a defendant who commits a specified drug

crime “after a prior conviction for a felony drug offense has become final”). See, e.g.,

United States v. Ortega, 150 F.3d 937, 948 (8th Cir. 1998); see also United States v.

Pritchett, 749 F.3d 417, 426 (6th Cir. 2014) (reasoning that “it makes sense” to treat

a prior conviction the same under the career offender provisions as under § 841

“because interpreting the term ‘conviction’ differently for purposes of § 841 and the

sentencing guidelines ‘would disrupt uniformity in federal sentencing’” (quoting

United States v. Mejias, 47 F.3d 401, 404 (11th Cir. 1995) (per curiam))). 

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Lewis next argues that the district court erred by treating the Guidelines as

mandatory. “When we review the imposition of sentences, whether inside or outside

the Guidelines range, we apply ‘a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.’” United

States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (internal quotation

marks omitted) (quoting Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007)). If true,

Lewis’s charge that the district court treated the Guidelines as mandatory would

constitute procedural error. See United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 245 (2005). 

Upon review of the record, however, it is clear the district court did not misconstrue

its obligation to treat the Guidelines as advisory. During the sentencing hearing,

Lewis argued that he was not a career offender, stating, “We know that the sentencing

guidelines indicate that suspended imposition of sentence is a conviction for federal

purposes. However, I’m asking the Court to deviate from that policy . . . .” Tr. of

Sentencing Hr’g at 6. The district court responded, “That’s not a policy. That’s the

law.” Tr. of Sentencing Hr’g at 6. 

Lewis contends the district court’s response shows it treated the Guidelines as

mandatory. We disagree. The district court merely acknowledged that it would

follow the Guidelines in determining Lewis’s status as a career offender and in

determining his Guidelines range. See Feemster, 572 F.3d at 460-61 (“‘[A] district

court should begin all sentencing proceedings by correctly calculating the applicable

Guidelines range.’” (alteration in original) (quoting Gall, 552 U.S. at 49)). It never

indicated the Guidelines range was binding. To the contrary, our review of the

sentencing proceedings and the district court’s statements confirms that the district

court properly recognized that the Guidelines were advisory when it considered both

departures and variances. There was no procedural error.

Lewis finally argues that his sentence was substantively unreasonable. We

review the substantive reasonableness of a sentence for an abuse of discretion. Id. at

461. “A district court abuses its discretion when it (1) fails to consider a relevant

factor that should have received significant weight; (2) gives significant weight to an

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improper or irrelevant factor; or (3) considers only the appropriate factors but in

weighing those factors commits a clear error of judgment.” Id. (internal quotation

marks omitted). “Because the district court adopted a within-Guidelines sentence, we

presume the sentence is reasonable, and [Lewis] carries the burden of rebutting this

presumption.” United States v. Beasley, 688 F.3d 523, 535 (8th Cir. 2012).

Lewis concedes that the district court considered only the appropriate factors

under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), but maintains it committed a clear error of judgment in

weighing the nature and circumstances of his offense more heavily than his mitigating

history and characteristics. However, “[a] district court’s choice to assign relatively

greater weight to the nature and circumstances of the offense than to the mitigating

personal characteristics of the defendant is well within its wide latitude in weighing

relevant factors.” United States v. Farmer, 647 F.3d 1175, 1180 (8th Cir. 2011). 

Nothing in the record convinces us the district court abused its discretion in weighing

the section 3553(a) factors.

For the foregoing reasons, we affirm Lewis’s sentence.

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