Opinion ID: 2816319
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Fountain’s Sentence

Text: Fountain contends the District Court committed procedural error by placing undue weight on the Guidelines and on deterrence interests while minimizing the offenderspecific considerations in this case, including that she was a first-time offender and the sole caregiver of four children, one of whom received a terminal medical diagnosis during the course of this prosecution. But the District Court gave adequate consideration to all of these factors, finding they were not “sufficiently extraordinary” to warrant a variance, and noted that they did not deter Fountain from her “egregious and protracted criminality.” Fountain’s App. 1008-09. 22 Fountain’s argument ultimately amounts to a challenge of substantive unreasonableness, as a complaint that a district court’s choice of sentence did not afford certain factors enough weight “is a substantive complaint, not a procedural one.” United States v. Merced, 603 F.3d 203, 217 (3d Cir. 2010); see also United States v. Bungar, 478 F.3d 540, 546 (3d Cir. 2007) (“Nor do we find that a district court’s failure to give mitigating factors the weight a defendant contends they deserve renders the sentence unreasonable.”). As such, notwithstanding the tragic circumstances facing Fountain’s family, Fountain cannot meet her heavy burden of showing that a sentence within the applicable Guidelines range was substantively unreasonable in light of the sophisticated nature of her crimes, her lack of remorse, her abuse of her position with the IRS, and the need to deter other public employees from taking advantage of sensitive information.