Opinion ID: 201890
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Applicability of Booker

Text: 12 Because Tavares did not raise any objection to his sentence below, his Booker claim is not preserved and he bears the burden of showing plain error. United States v. Antonakopoulos, 399 F.3d 68, 77 (1st Cir.2005). In this context, a defendant must show a reasonable probability that the trial judge would have sentenced differently under an advisory guidelines regime. Id. at 79. Although we are not inclined to be overly demanding as to proof of probability, the burden remains on the defendant to demonstrate a reasonable indication that the district judge might well have reached a different result had the mandatory system not been in place. United States v. Heldeman, 402 F.3d 220, 224 (1st Cir.2005). 13 Tavares emphasizes the statement made by the district judge at the sentencing in response to Tavares' description of his mitigating family and personal circumstances. Indicating a desire to credit Tavares' personal statement, the judge stated, There is not much I can do, but I will impose a sentence at the mid-point of [the Guidelines] range instead of the maximum the judge had initially intended to impose. This statement is ambiguous: it could be a simple recognition of the constraints the Guidelines then imposed, or it could indicate the judge's view of Tavares' criminal history. Either way, we do not interpret this statement as indicating a likely different result under advisory Guidelines, especially since no other statement made at the sentencing hearing supports Tavares' position. 14 In addition, Tavares received a mid-range sentence (108 months from a range of 97-120 months). This court treats the fact that a defendant was given a middle-of-the-range sentence as one factor, but not the deciding factor, in analyzing whether the Antonakopoulos standard is met. See United States v. Gonzalez-Mercado, 402 F.3d 294, 304 (1st Cir.2005) (When, under a mandatory guidelines regime, a sentencing court has elected to sentence the defendant substantially above the bottom of the range, that is a telling indication that the court, if acting under an advisory guidelines regime, would in all likelihood have imposed the same sentence.). Here, the mid-range sentence is not paired with any persuasive evidence indicating the court might have sentenced differently under an advisory regime. See United States v. Baskin, 424 F.3d 1 (1st Cir.2005) (denying Booker remand where defendant was allowed to present mitigating evidence at sentencing hearing, judge imposed mid-range sentence, and nothing else in the record indicated a different outcome would be likely under advisory Guidelines).