Court Opinion

ID: 9379218
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-03-15 00:00:29.555244+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:16:59.893644
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-60455        Document: 00516676815             Page: 1      Date Filed: 03/14/2023

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

                                      No. 22-60455
                                                                                     FILED
                                                                                March 14, 2023
                                    Summary Calendar
                                    ____________                                Lyle W. Cayce
                                                                                     Clerk
   United States of America,

                                                                     Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                            versus

   Ronnie Thomas,

                                              Defendant—Appellant.
                     ______________________________

                     Appeal from the United States District Court
                       for the Northern District of Mississippi
                               USDC No. 4:21-CR-15-1
                     ______________________________

   Before Wiener, Elrod, and Engelhardt, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         Defendant-Appellant Ronnie Thomas pleaded guilty to one count of
   distribution of cocaine and was sentenced as a career offender to 151 months
   in prison, the bottom of the guidelines range. On appeal, he challenges the
   substantive reasonableness of his sentence. Thomas contends that his

         _____________________
         *
             This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 22-60455      Document: 00516676815          Page: 2   Date Filed: 03/14/2023

                                    No. 22-60455

   sentence is substantively unreasonable because the district court afforded
   insufficient credit to mitigating factors that he specifies. We AFFIRM.
          We review the substantive reasonableness of a district court’s
   sentence for abuse of discretion. We give great deference to the sentence
   imposed by the district court and its weighing of the sentencing factors.
   United States v. Simpson, 796 F.3d 548, 557 (5th Cir. 2015). Because
   Thomas’s sentence was within the guideline range, it is presumed to be
   reasonable. See id. He can only rebut this presumption “by demonstrating
   that the sentence: (1) does not account for a factor that should have received
   significant weight, (2) gives significant weight to an irrelevant or improper
   factor, or (3) represents a clear error of judgment in balancing the sentencing
   factors.” Id. at 558 (internal quotations omitted).
          We have reviewed the record and conclude that Thomas has failed to
   rebut the presumption of reasonableness. The district court considered
   Thomas’s and the Government’s contentions and concluded that a sentence
   at the bottom of the range was appropriate. Further, Thomas’s disagreement
   with the policy of the career-offender provision of the U.S. Sentencing
   Guidelines is not sufficient to make his sentence unreasonable. See United
   States v. Mondragon-Santiago, 564 F.3d 357, 356–67 (5th Cir. 2009).
          We AFFIRM.

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