Court Opinion

ID: 9881290
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-30 00:00:26.6592+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:16.655944
License: Public Domain

Case: 23-10554         Document: 00516914982             Page: 1      Date Filed: 09/29/2023

              United States Court of Appeals
                   for the Fifth Circuit
                                      ____________
                                                                                United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                         Fifth Circuit
                                       No. 23-10554
                                     Summary Calendar                                  FILED
                                     ____________                             September 29, 2023
                                                                                  Lyle W. Cayce
   United States of America,                                                           Clerk

                                                                       Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                             versus

   David Lewis Meals, Jr.,

                                               Defendant—Appellant.
                      ______________________________

                      Appeal from the United States District Court
                          for the Northern District of Texas
                                USDC No. 4:13-CR-23-1
                      ______________________________

   Before Jones, Southwick, and Ho, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
         David Lewis Meals, Jr., federal prisoner # 40910-280, appeals the
   denial of his motion to further reduce his 225-month sentence for possession
   with intent to distribute a controlled substance, filed pursuant to 18 U.S.C.
   § 3582(c)(2). The district court previously granted Meals a reduction based
   upon Amendment 782 to the Sentencing Guidelines. Meals contends that

         _____________________
          *
              This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 23-10554      Document: 00516914982          Page: 2   Date Filed: 09/29/2023

                                    No. 23-10554

   the district court’s decision that the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) sentencing factors
   did not warrant a further sentence reduction for his methamphetamine
   offense was an abuse of discretion.
          Contrary to Meals’s argument, the district court considered his
   arguments for a lower sentence but concluded that pertinent sentencing
   factors of § 3553(a) did not weigh in favor of a further reduction. See United
   States v. Evans, 587 F.3d 667, 673 (5th Cir. 2009). Because the district court
   was not obligated to reduce Meals’s sentence at all, the district court did not
   have to reduce it further than it did within the recalculated guidelines range.
   See id. Meals’s argument amounts to a disagreement with the court’s
   balancing of the § 3553(a) sentencing factors, which is not sufficient to
   demonstrate an abuse of discretion. See United States v. Lopez-Velasquez, 526
   F.3d 804, 807 (5th Cir. 2008).
          AFFIRMED.

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