Case Name: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Henry RAFTOPOULOS, Defendant-Appellant
Court: United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 2014-02-25
Citations: 556 F. App'x 864
Docket Number: No. 13-12703
Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Henry RAFTOPOULOS, Defendant-Appellant.
Judges: Before HULL, MARCUS and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.
Reporter: West's Federal Appendix
Volume: 556
Pages: 864–864

Head Matter:
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. John Henry RAFTOPOULOS, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 13-12703
Non-Argument Calendar.
United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.
Feb. 25, 2014.
Michelle Thresher Taylor, Robert E. O’Neill, Joseph Michael Schuster, U.S. Attorney’s Office, Orlando, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Tim Bower Rodriguez, Tim Bower Rodriguez, PA, Tampa, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.
Before HULL, MARCUS and PRYOR, Circuit Judges.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM:
John Raftopoulos appeals his sentence of 120 months imprisonment, following his plea of guilty to robbery of a bank using force and violence or intimidation. See 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). Raftopoulos argues that his sentence is unreasonable. We affirm.
Raftopoulos, a career offender, walked into a bank in Palm Beach, Florida, with a black pouch strapped to his body and passed a note to a teller that stated as follows: "I AM WILLING TO DIE FOR THIS MONEY. ARE YOU. ALL THE MONEY — STACK! NO DYE PACK-TRANSMITTER." With money in hand, Raftopoulos glanced at the teller and patted his black pouch. Raftopoulos had a criminal history of VI that included prior convictions for bank robbery and possession by a felon of a firearm equipped with a silencer. Raftopoulos blamed his crimes on various addictions, but the district court found that he had a "pattern of criminal conduct [beginning at age 14 that] [was] interrupted primarily by time in prison."
The district court reasonably determined that a sentence at the low end of Raftopoulos's advisory guideline range of 120 to 150 months of imprisonment was necessary to address his crime; his lack of respect for the law; his history of offenses involving "force and violence"; and to prevent him from committing future similar crimes that endangered the public. See United States v. Talley, 431 F.3d 784, 788 (11th Cir.2005). Moreover, Raftopoulos faced a maximum statutory penalty of 20 years, but was incorrectly assigned an offense level of 29 instead of an offense level of 32, see United States Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 4Bl.l(b) (Nov. 2012), which would have resulted in a guidelines range between 151 and 188 months of imprisonment, id. ch. 5, pt. A. The district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing a sentence of 120 months, which is well below the statutory maximum penalty for Rafto-poulos's offense. See United States v. Gonzalez, 550 F.3d 1319, 1324 (11th Cir.2008).
We AFFIRM Raftopoulos's sentence.