Court Opinion

ID: 9881810
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-04 00:00:31.606042+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T14:25:08.391108
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-60379         Document: 00516919002             Page: 1      Date Filed: 10/03/2023

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

                                      ____________                                FILED
                                                                            October 3, 2023
                                       No. 23-60379
                                                                             Lyle W. Cayce
                                     Summary Calendar                             Clerk
                                     ____________

   United States of America,

                                                                       Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                             versus

   Nateagus Damon Mason,

                                               Defendant—Appellant.
                      ______________________________

                      Appeal from the United States District Court
                        for the Southern District of Mississippi
                                USDC No. 3:16-CR-64-1
                      ______________________________

   Before Jolly, Higginson, and Duncan, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam:*
          The district court determined that Nateagus Damon Mason violated
   the conditions of his supervised release by committing another federal, state
   or local crime and by possessing illegal controlled substances, ordered that
   his release be revoked, and sentenced him to 18 months of imprisonment,
   followed by an 18-month term of supervised release. On appeal, Mason

          _____________________
          *
              This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 23-60379      Document: 00516919002           Page: 2    Date Filed: 10/03/2023

                                     No. 23-60379

   argues that the revocation was error because the evidence was insufficient to
   show that he committed the charged violations. He complains that there was
   no direct evidence, such as dashboard camera or body camera footage,
   showing that he threw baggies of drugs out of the window of the SUV he was
   driving and complains that the arresting officer, Agent Decker, who testified
   at the revocation hearing, never identified him by his distinctive tattoos.
   According to Mason, Agent Decker’s testimony showed only that a black
   male threw the drugs and that, because both he and his passenger were black,
   it is possible that the passenger threw the drugs.
          We review a district court’s decision to revoke supervised release for
   an abuse of discretion. United States v. Spraglin, 418 F.3d 479, 480 (5th Cir.
   2005). The district court could revoke Mason’s supervised release if it found
   by a preponderance of the evidence that he violated a condition of his
   supervised release. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3); United States v. Hinson,
   429 F.3d 114, 118-19 (5th Cir. 2005); see also Spraglin, 418 F.3d at 481. The
   evidence, and all reasonable inferences drawn from it, when viewed in the
   light most favorable to the Government, supports that a reasonable trier of
   fact could conclude that Mason threw baggies containing methamphetamine
   and MDMB out of the window of the SUV he was driving as he was being
   stopped for a traffic violation. See United States v. Alaniz-Alaniz, 38 F.3d 788,
   792 (5th Cir. 1994). Agent Decker’s testimony established that he was very
   close to the SUV at the time the drugs were thrown, that he saw the driver,
   later identified as Mason, throw the drugs with his left arm out of the driver’s
   side window, and that he observed that the passenger never moved from the
   passenger’s side of the vehicle. Mason’s appellate arguments are, in essence,
   a challenge to the credibility of Agent Decker’s testimony, but this court will
   not revisit the district court’s credibility determination. See id. at 791.

                                           2
Case: 23-60379     Document: 00516919002          Page: 3   Date Filed: 10/03/2023

                                   No. 23-60379

         The district court did not abuse its discretion in revoking Mason’s
   supervised release. See Spraglin, 418 F.3d at 480. Accordingly, its judgment
   is AFFIRMED.

                                        3