Opinion ID: 795012
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Maurstad's Sentence

Text: 7 In sentencing a defendant, the district court should first calculate the advisory Guidelines range. United States v. Sitting Bear, 436 F.3d 929, 934 (8th Cir. 2006). Second, the district court should consider whether any departure is warranted under the Guidelines. Id. Third, the district court should consider the sentencing factors of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and impose a reasonable sentence. Id. at 934-35. We review the reasonableness of a sentence for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Sebastian, 436 F.3d 913, 915 (8th Cir.2006). [A]n abuse of discretion may occur when (1) a court fails to consider a relevant factor that should have received significant weight; (2) a court gives significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor; or (3) a court considers only the appropriate factors but in weighing those factors commits a `clear error of judgment.' United States v. Haack, 403 F.3d 997, 1004 (8th Cir.2005) (citing Kern v. TXO Prod. Corp., 738 F.2d 968, 970 (8th Cir.1984)). Where a defendant's criminal history is substantially underrepresented by the Guidelines, an extraordinary upward departure or variance may be reasonable, provided that it is justified by extraordinary circumstances. United States v. Lyons, 450 F.3d 834, 2006 WL 1667635, at  (8th Cir.2006); United States v. Kendall, 446 F.3d 782, 785 (8th Cir.2006); United States v. Shannon, 414 F.3d 921, 923-24 (8th Cir.2005). 8 Maurstad's sentence withstands our reasonableness review. He has an extensive criminal history, spending most of his life in the penal system, either incarcerated or on parole. The district court characterized Maurstad's involvement with the penal system as serving life imprisonment on the installment plan. His criminal behavior began at age 12 with several misdemeanor theft convictions and has escalated to include now (at age 34) several felony burglary convictions, an illegal weapon charge, domestic assault, forgery, and other theft-related convictions. Maurstad has often escaped or absconded from jail and work release, including a recent escape from state custody in 2004. Several times his parole has been revoked. Maurstad amassed 28 criminal history points, well beyond the 13 points required to classify him a category VI offender, the highest listed Guidelines classification. In addition, several of his convictions resulted in no criminal history points under the Guidelines. Given Maurstad's longstanding criminal behavior and his resistance to rehabilitation, his case is analogous to our holdings in Lyons, 450 F.3d 834, 2006 WL 1667635, at , and Shannon, 414 F.3d at 923-24. Therefore, we affirm his sentence as reasonable. 9 We note that the record is unclear whether the district court intended to impose an upward departure under the Guidelines or an upward variance outside of the Guidelines. In concluding the sentencing colloquy, the district court stated, I'm going to impose what used to be called upward departure. I'm going to sentence [Maurstad] to 120 months of custody[.] (Sent. Tr. 20). However, the court did not explicitly refer to the Guidelines departure provisions. While we reiterate that departures under the Guidelines should still be considered after Booker, see Sitting Bear, 436 F.3d at 934, we uphold Maurstad's sentence because the same considerations that render the upward variance reasonable could have also justified an upward departure under the Guidelines. See Lyons, 450 F.3d 834, 2006 WL 1667635, at . The failure to explicitly consider a departure under the Guidelines represents clear but harmless error given the extraordinary circumstances present here that justify the extraordinary variance. See Sitting Bear, 436 F.3d at 935 (citing United States v. Long Soldier, 431 F.3d 1120, 1122 (8th Cir.2005)).