Court Opinion

ID: 9371085
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-02-15 16:01:33.325025+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:25.282520
License: Public Domain

United States Court of Appeals
                             For the Eighth Circuit
                         ___________________________

                                 No. 22-2229
                         ___________________________

                             United States of America

                                       Plaintiff - Appellee

                                         v.

                             Christopher Plenty Chief

                                    Defendant - Appellant
                                  ____________

                     Appeal from United States District Court
                    for the District of South Dakota - Northern
                                   ____________

                          Submitted: November 14, 2022
                             Filed: February 15, 2023
                                  [Unpublished]
                                  ____________

Before BENTON, KELLY, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges.
                           ____________

PER CURIAM.

       Christopher Plenty Chief pleaded guilty to one count of assault resulting in
substantial bodily injury to a spouse or intimate partner, in violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 113(a)(7), and was sentenced to 24 months in prison and a three-year term of
supervised release. In 2019, Plenty Chief’s term of supervised release was revoked
after he violated the conditions of release. His supervision was revoked again in
2021. On June 6, 2022, his supervised release was revoked for a third time, and the
district court 1 imposed a sentence of 24-months’ imprisonment with no supervision
to follow. Plenty Chief appeals.

       At the hearing for his third revocation, Plenty Chief admitted to two violations
of his supervised release conditions: unlawful use of a controlled substance and
possession of a dangerous weapon, both Grade C violations. The advisory
Guidelines range was 8–14 months, and the parties jointly recommended a sentence
of 14-months’ imprisonment, with no supervision to follow. Plenty Chief argues
that the district court’s decision to disregard this recommendation and impose a
sentence above the advisory range resulted in a substantively unreasonable sentence.

      We review revocation sentences under the same reasonableness standard
applied to initial sentences. United States v. Wilkins, 909 F.3d 915, 917 (8th Cir.
2018) (“[T]he substantive reasonableness of a revocation sentence is reviewed
‘under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard.’” (citation omitted)). “A district
court abuses its discretion and imposes an unreasonable sentence when it fails to
consider a relevant and significant factor, gives significant weight to an irrelevant or
improper factor, or considers the appropriate factors but commits a clear error of
judgment in weighing those factors.” Id. (alteration and citation omitted).

       Plenty Chief first argues that the district court gave too much weight to his
prior criminal record and the conduct underlying his supervised release violations.
Specifically, he contends that because criminal history and severity of conduct are
already considered in determining the advisory Guidelines range, see USSG
§§ 7B1.1, 7B1.4, it was error for the district court to rely on those factors in varying
his sentence upward. But Plenty Chief’s argument overlooks the fact that the district
court primarily relied on other factors in reaching its sentencing decision. The
district court emphasized that Plenty Chief had already been sentenced to a term of

      1
        The Honorable Charles B. Kornmann, United States District Judge for the
District of South Dakota.

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14 months’ imprisonment after each of his first two revocations. Those sentences
had not, in the district court’s view, accomplished the goal of helping Plenty Chief
to “recover . . . [from] criminal conduct” and avoid “further trouble.” To impose the
same sentence yet again would fail to reflect Plenty Chief’s “course of escalating
criminal conduct.” The district court also noted, without objection, that Plenty Chief
had previously received a “tremendous benefit” from his original plea agreement,
which lowered the advisory Guidelines range applicable to his offense of conviction.
See USSG § 7B1.4, comment. (n.4). These are all permissible factors for the district
court to consider, 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e), and the record does not support the claim
that the district court relied too heavily on factors already taken into account by the
Guidelines.

       Plenty Chief next argues that the district court failed to give sufficient weight
to the positive steps he had taken toward compliance with the terms of his
supervision, including moving to a new city, finding new friends, and scheduling a
chemical dependency evaluation. We see no error in the district court’s decision not
to give greater weight to these efforts, particularly considering the difficulties Plenty
Chief had with supervision. The district court stated it could see nothing that Plenty
Chief had done to “work with [his] probation officer to help turn his life around.”
The district court has wide latitude in weighing the relevant factors when imposing
a sentence, see United States v. Barber, 4 F.4th 689, 692 (8th Cir. 2021), and we
discern no abuse of discretion in how the district court did so in this case.

      The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
                     ______________________________

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