Court Opinion

ID: 9362901
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-13 14:00:44.739941+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:26.645206
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 21-13697    Document: 32-1     Date Filed: 01/13/2023   Page: 1 of 6

                                                  [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                   In the
                United States Court of Appeals
                        For the Eleventh Circuit

                          ____________________

                                No. 21-13697
                          Non-Argument Calendar
                          ____________________

       UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                      Plaintiff-Appellee,
       versus
       PRENTISS K. MADDEN,

                                                  Defendant-Appellant.

                          ____________________

                 Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Southern District of Florida
                    D.C. Docket No. 1:21-cr-20248-JEM-1
                          ____________________
USCA11 Case: 21-13697     Document: 32-1     Date Filed: 01/13/2023    Page: 2 of 6

       2                      Opinion of the Court               21-13697

       Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and LUCK, Circuit Judges.
       PER CURIAM:
              Prentiss Madden pleaded guilty to charges involving child
       pornography and an animal crush video, and the district court sen-
       tenced him to 262 months’ imprisonment. On appeal, Madden ar-
       gues that the district court applied a sentencing enhancement for
       engaging in a pattern or activity involving the sexual abuse or ex-
       ploitation of a minor without sufficient evidence. We affirm.
                                       I.
              Madden was arrested in March 2021 after agents with the
       Department of Homeland Security became aware of child pornog-
       raphy in an online storage folder linked to him. When the agents
       searched Madden’s home, they recovered two cell phones that
       Madden later admitted were his. The phones contained more child
       pornography as well as videos of Madden, a licensed veterinarian,
       sexually molesting dogs. Madden pleaded guilty to three counts of
       receiving child pornography, one count of possessing child pornog-
       raphy, and one count of creating an animal crush video.
              The presentence investigation report included messages
       found on Madden’s phones in which Madden told a friend he had
       had sex with children on several different occasions. Several of the
       messages referenced a boy who had apparently turned sixteen in
       2019 but with whom Madden claimed to have been sexually active
       for two years by that time. The presentence investigation report
       assigned Madden a base offense level of 22. With several
USCA11 Case: 21-13697     Document: 32-1      Date Filed: 01/13/2023    Page: 3 of 6

       21-13697               Opinion of the Court                        3

       sentencing enhancements (and a reduction for Madden’s ac-
       ceptance of responsibility), Madden had a total offense level of 37,
       for a guidelines range of 210 to 260 months’ imprisonment.
              The sentencing enhancement relevant here added five
       points to Madden’s offense level for a “pattern of activity involving
       the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor.”                U.S.S.G.
       § 2G2.2(b)(5). Madden objected to this enhancement. He argued
       that there was insufficient evidence he’d engaged in sexual activity
       with the minor victim twice before the minor turned sixteen—the
       minimum for the “pattern of activity” enhancement to apply.
               At sentencing, the government called Department of Home-
       land Security Agent Leah Ortiz—the investigator who had exe-
       cuted the search warrant at Madden’s home—to testify about Mad-
       den’s sexual relationship with the minor victim. Agent Ortiz testi-
       fied that the minor victim had identified himself in a frame of a
       video that depicted him and Madden having sex inside of a car
       when the minor victim was fifteen. Agent Ortiz testified that the
       victim stated he and Madden had sex “two or three times” and that
       Madden once suggested that they have sex together with a third
       person. Based on the dates Madden sent some of the text messages
       that referenced sex with the minor victim, Agent Ortiz concluded
       that the two had engaged in sexual conduct multiple times before
       the minor victim turned sixteen. And based on Agent Ortiz’s testi-
       mony and the content of messages from Madden’s phone, the dis-
       trict court overruled Madden’s objections to the section 2G2.2(b)
       sentencing enhancement.
USCA11 Case: 21-13697      Document: 32-1     Date Filed: 01/13/2023     Page: 4 of 6

       4                      Opinion of the Court                 21-13697

                                        II.

              We review the district court’s findings of fact for clear error
       and its application of the sentencing guidelines to the facts de novo.
       See United States v. Isaac, 987 F.3d 980, 990 (11th Cir. 2021). “For
       a finding to be clearly erroneous, this Court must be left with a
       definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.”
       Id. (quoting United States v. Rothenberg, 610 F.3d 621, 642 (11th
       Cir. 2010)).
                                        III.
              The sentencing guidelines call for a five-level increase to a
       defendant’s offense level if “the defendant engaged in a pattern of
       activity involving the sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor.”
       U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2(b)(5). A “pattern of activity” means “any combi-
       nation of two or more separate instances” of conduct prohibited
       under various statutes, including 18 U.S.C. section 2243. Id.
       § 2G2.2 cmt. n.1. Section 2243, in turn, prohibits “engag[ing] in a
       sexual act with another person” between the ages of twelve and
       sixteen. 18 U.S.C. § 2243(a)(1).
              Madden argues that the district court erred when it en-
       hanced his sentence after finding he had engaged in a pattern of
       sexual abuse or exploitation of a minor. He contends that the gov-
       ernment did not present sufficient evidence for the district court to
       conclude that he had engaged in sexual activity on multiple occa-
       sions before the minor victim turned sixteen. Madden gives four
       reasons to support his position: (1) the minor victim could not re-
       member how many times he’d had sex with Madden; (2) the minor
USCA11 Case: 21-13697     Document: 32-1      Date Filed: 01/13/2023    Page: 5 of 6

       21-13697               Opinion of the Court                        5

       victim could not “pinpoint[]” when he’d had sex with Madden; (3)
       Madden’s text messages could be interpreted as “bragging” and did
       not prove he’d had sex with the minor victim; and (4) the govern-
       ment provided specific evidence of only one instance—the one cap-
       tured on video—of sexual conduct before the minor victim turned
       sixteen.
              None of these reasons leaves us with “a definite and firm
       conviction” that the district court got the facts wrong. See Isaac,
       987 F.3d at 990. At sentencing, Madden conceded that the video of
       him having sex once with the minor victim was authentic. Alt-
       hough the minor victim could not remember exactly how many
       times he’d had sex with Madden, he did state that it was “two or
       three” times—either of which would satisfy the definition of a “pat-
       tern of activity” under the guidelines. See U.S.S.G. § 2G2.2 cmt.
       n.1. The minor victim further stated that he and Madden had sex
       multiple times before the minor victim’s sixteenth birthday. Mad-
       den argues that Agent Ortiz’s testimony about the minor victim’s
       interview with investigators was “unspecific and unreliable” evi-
       dence. But although the minor victim could not remember exactly
       how many times he’d had sex with Madden, the evidence consist-
       ently pointed to it being more than once.
              We likewise see no clear error in the district court’s evalua-
       tion of Madden’s text messages. Madden argues that these text
       messages were simply “bragging” and not reliable evidence. But
       the minor victim’s statements and Madden’s text messages corrob-
       orated one another. For example, one text message Madden sent
USCA11 Case: 21-13697      Document: 32-1     Date Filed: 01/13/2023     Page: 6 of 6

       6                      Opinion of the Court                 21-13697

       to a third person suggested that the two of them have sex with the
       minor victim together. Madden remarked that the minor victim
       was sixteen at that point but that he’d been having sex with the
       minor victim “for two years already.” This text message corrobo-
       rated the minor victim’s statement that Madden had suggested the
       two of them having sex with a third person. It was not clear error
       for the district court to conclude that the corroboration between
       this text message and the minor victim’s interview indicated that
       the sexual activity mentioned in other of Madden’s text messages
       had really occurred.
              In short, none of Madden’s arguments leads us to find clear
       error in the district court’s findings of fact. And on those facts, it
       was proper to apply the section 2G2.2(b) sentencing enhancement.
             AFFIRMED.