Court Opinion

ID: 9909777
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-12-14 01:00:32.748417+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:50:03.732468
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-30088        Document: 00517000524             Page: 1      Date Filed: 12/13/2023

             United States Court of Appeals
                  for the Fifth Circuit
                                     ____________                              United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                        Fifth Circuit

                                                                                       FILED
                                      No. 23-30088                           December 13, 2023
                                    Summary Calendar
                                    ____________                                 Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                      Clerk
   United States of America,

                                                                     Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                            versus

   Anthony Suber,

                                              Defendant—Appellant.
                     ______________________________

                     Appeal from the United States District Court
                        for the Western District of Louisiana
                               USDC No. 1:22-CR-20-1
                     ______________________________

   Before Higginbotham, Stewart, and Southwick, Circuit
   Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         Anthony Suber appeals the 51-month sentence imposed following his
   guilty-plea conviction of causing bodily injury by assaulting, resisting, or
   impeding certain officers or employees. Specifically, Suber challenges the

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.4.
Case: 23-30088      Document: 00517000524           Page: 2    Date Filed: 12/13/2023

                                     No. 23-30088

   six-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3A1.2(c)(2) for assaulting a prison
   official while in custody.
          We review the district court’s interpretation and application of the
   guidelines de novo and its factual findings for clear error. See United States v.
   Perryman, 965 F.3d 424, 426 (5th Cir. 2020). “A factual finding is not clearly
   erroneous as long as it is plausible in light of the record read as a whole.”
   United States v. Sanders, 942 F.2d 894, 897 (5th Cir. 1991).
          Suber contends that, because he was blinded and disoriented by
   pepper spray, he neither knew nor had reasonable cause to believe that any
   victim of his assault was a prison official as Section 3A1.2(c)(2) requires. The
   record shows that officers orally ordered Suber to stop fighting with his
   cellmate, deployed pepper spray, and then opened the cell door, after which
   Suber crawled or rolled out of the cell and bit two officers while they tried to
   restrain him.    The district court’s finding that the enhancement was
   warranted is plausible in light of the record as a whole.
          AFFIRMED.

                                          2