Opinion ID: 2800048
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Comparison with Cook

Text: Beckman argues the district court procedurally erred by failing to explain why Beckman’s sentence was sixty months longer than Cook’s, even though, according to Beckman, Cook was “[t]he acknowledged kingpin of the Ponzi scheme.” See 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(6) (requiring a sentencing court to consider “the need to avoid unwarranted sentence disparities among defendants with similar records who have been found guilty of similar conduct”). Beckman’s argument fails because “avoidance of unwarranted disparities was clearly considered by the Sentencing Commission when setting the Guidelines ranges,” and a district judge “necessarily g[ives] significant weight and consideration to the need to avoid unwarranted disparities” when he “correctly calculate[s] and carefully review[s] the Guidelines range.” Gall, 552 U.S. at 54. Beckman also ignores Cook’s different status with regard to sentencing. First, Cook pled guilty, while Beckman proceeded with a lengthy, complex jury trial. -41- Second, Cook pled guilty to two crimes, aiding and abetting mail fraud and tax evasion, while a jury convicted Beckman of many more, including crimes unique to him concerning the Olsons and the NHL. As a result, Cook was not similarly situated with Beckman. See United States v. Williams, 624 F.3d 889, 897 (8th Cir. 2010) (finding “no procedural error in the district court’s consideration of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(6) [when] the two defendants were not similarly situated”). At Beckman’s sentencing hearing, the district court said, “I have reviewed all the case law that is pertinent to this case from the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and of course the United States Supreme Court and most assuredly I have reviewed Title 18, 3553(a), and those provisions in fashioning the sentence that I will hand down in a few moments.” The district court continued, “All four of you that I am going to be sentencing today, from Pettengill, to Durand, to Kiley to you [Beckman], were essential to the whole scheme, as was Trevor Cook, and for that you will be sentenced to a term of imprisonment that I believe is appropriate.” The district court did not procedurally err when it considered § 3553(a)(6), and the district court adequately explained the sentences of the defendants in relation to each other, particularly considering the obvious disparities between Beckman and Cook.16 16 Beckman urges us to remand for clarification of his sentence in relation to Cook, citing United States v. Cole, 721 F.3d 1016 (8th Cir. 2013), where the sentencing court sentenced Cole to three years probation when her advisory Guidelines range was 135 to 168 months imprisonment and her co-conspirators received “much harsher” sentences of 180 months and 90 months imprisonment. Id. at 1019, 1025. Noting “the magnitude of the downward variance” and that Cole’s sentence was “a ‘major departure’ from the advisory Guidelines range,” we “remand[ed] for the district court to more fully explain the defendant-specific facts and policy decisions upon which it relied in determining that the probationary sentence [was] ‘sufficient, but not greater than necessary’ . . . to achieve the sentencing objectives set forth in section 3553(a).” Id. at 1025 (quoting Gall, 552 U.S. at 50 and 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)). Our remand in Cole was predicated upon the unique facts of that case and does not require the same result here, where Beckman received a well-considered and well-explained sentence of imprisonment. -42-