Court Opinion

ID: 994598
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2013-07-04 00:25:11.551242+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:26:52.163411
License: Public Domain

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.                                                                      No. 97-4808

LEROY ERIC ALLEN,
Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at Raleigh.
W. Earl Britt, Senior District Judge.
(CR-94-58)

Submitted: March 10, 1998

Decided: April 3, 1998

Before MURNAGHAN, ERVIN, and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges.

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Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

William Arthur Webb, Federal Public Defender, G. Alan DuBois,
Assistant Federal Public Defender, Raleigh, North Carolina, for
Appellant. Janice McKenzie Cole, United States Attorney, Anne M.
Hayes, Assistant United States Attorney, Raleigh, North Carolina, for
Appellee.

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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See
Local Rule 36(c).

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OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Appellant Leroy Allen appeals from the district court's order
revoking his probation and sentencing him to eighteen months'
imprisonment. Allen alleges that the sentence is unreasonable given
that the recommended Guideline range for his violations was three to
nine months.1 Finding no error, we affirm.

In 1994, Allen was convicted pursuant to his guilty plea of possess-
ing a machine gun. The applicable Guideline range for this offense
was twenty-four to thirty months' imprisonment. The sentencing
court granted a motion for downward departure based on Allen's sub-
stantial assistance and sentenced Allen to thirty-six months' proba-
tion. In May 1997, Allen's probation officer filed a motion to revoke
Allen's probation due to three violations: (1) criminal misconduct;2
(2) failure to report his arrest to his probation officer; and (3) lying
to his probation officer concerning the severity of his offense.3

We review the district court's sentence for an abuse of discretion
and find none here. See United States v. Davis , 53 F.3d 638, 642 (4th
Cir. 1995). The sentencing ranges in USSG § 7B1.4 are non-binding
advisory guides, and the district court is required only to consider
these ranges when making its decision. In the present case, the district
court properly considered the sentencing range in§ 7B1.4 and articu-
lated specific reasons for diverging from this range.4 We further find
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1 U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 7B1.4 (1996).
2 Allen was arrested in New York in December 1996 for petit larceny.
3 Allen admitted the violations at the revocation hearing.
4 The district court was especially concerned about Allen's failure to
report his arrest to his probation officer and his acts of deception (i.e.,
lying to his probation officer and lying to New York officials by stating
that he had no prior convictions).

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that Allen's sentence is not unreasonable. It is well established that
a sentence imposed after revoking probation is a modification of the
sentence for the original offense of conviction. See United States v.
Woodrup, 86 F.3d 359, 361-62 (4th Cir. 1996). In the present case,
Allen was exposed to a sentencing range of twenty-four to thirty
months' imprisonment on the weapons offense, and the district court
imposed a sentence below this range.5

Accordingly, we affirm Allen's sentence. We dispense with oral
argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately pres-
ented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the
decisional process.

AFFIRMED
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5 The parties' arguments concerning the applicability of USSG § 7B1.4,
comment. (n.4), which allows for an upward departure if the defendant's
original sentence was the result of a downward departure (i.e., for sub-
stantial assistance), are without merit. Sentences which diverge from
advisory policy statements are not departures. Davis, 53 F.3d at 642 n.15.

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