Court Opinion

ID: 9954375
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-03-26 00:01:58.50325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:12:07.616410
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-30621            Document: 52-1         Page: 1      Date Filed: 03/25/2024

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

                                    No. 23-30621                                          FILED
                                  Summary Calendar                                  March 25, 2024
                                  ____________
                                                                                     Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                          Clerk
United States of America,

                                                                    Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                          versus

Tory Phillips,

                                            Defendant—Appellant.
                   ______________________________

                   Appeal from the United States District Court
                      for the Western District of Louisiana
                            USDC No. 6:20-CR-284-2
                   ______________________________

Before King, Haynes, and Graves, Circuit Judges.
Per Curiam: *
       Tory Phillips appeals the within-guidelines 88-month sentence of
imprisonment imposed following his guilty plea conviction for conspiracy to
distribute and to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
       Insofar as Phillips challenges the district court’s denial of his request
for a downward departure, we lack jurisdiction to review this issue. See

       _____________________
       *
           This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 23-30621       Document: 52-1       Page: 2    Date Filed: 03/25/2024

                                 No. 23-30621

United States v. Fillmore, 889 F.3d 249, 255 (5th Cir. 2018). As to his claim
that his sentence is substantively unreasonable, our review is for an abuse of
discretion. See Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). The district
court considered and rejected Phillips’s arguments for a lesser sentence, and
he has presented nothing to indicate that the court abused its discretion in
weighing the sentencing factors. See United States v. Cooks, 589 F.3d 173, 186
(5th Cir. 2009). His disagreement with the propriety of the sentence is
insufficient to rebut the presumption of reasonableness that applies to his
within-guidelines sentence. See id.
       Accordingly, we DISMISS Phillips’s appeal, in part, for lack of
jurisdiction and AFFIRM the district court’s judgment in all other respects.

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