Court Opinion

ID: 9363153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-13 18:57:27.101972+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:29.350334
License: Public Domain

FOR PUBLICATION                            FILED
                   UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS                       OCT 31 2022
                                                                     MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
                                                                      U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
                          FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,                     No.    21-10190

               Plaintiff-Appellee,            D.C. Nos.
                                              4:08-cr-00194-SBA-1
 v.                                           4:08-cr-00194-SBA

JAMES RICHARDS,
                                              OPINION
               Defendant-Appellant.

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                    for the Northern District of California
                Haywood S. Gilliam, Jr., District Judge, Presiding

                      Argued and Submitted June 17, 2022
                           San Francisco, California

Before: Jay S. Bybee, Consuelo M. Callahan, and Daniel P. Collins, Circuit
Judges.

                           Opinion by Judge Callahan
                                  SUMMARY *

                                  Criminal Law

   The panel affirmed the district court’s imposition of consecutive 24-month
sentences on James Richards after finding he violated the conditions of his
supervised release by possessing two guns and ammunition.

    Richards argued that 18 U.S.C. § 3583(g)’s requirement that a judge impose a
term of imprisonment based on conduct that constitutes a federal crime violates the
Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and that his violations should therefore have been
determined beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury. Explaining that § 3583(g) is more
like “ordinary revocation” than “punishment for a new offense,” the panel wrote that
Richards’ argument is not supported by Justice Breyer’s controlling concurring
opinion in United States v. Haymond, 139 S. Ct. 2369 (2019); was previously
rejected in United States v. Henderson, 998 F.3d 1071 (9th Cir. 2021); and has been
uniformly rejected by sister circuits. The panel concluded that Richards did not
show that the district court erred, let alone plainly erred.

   Richards argued that the consecutive sentences violate his rights under the
Double Jeopardy Clause. The panel wrote that his argument fails for three
reasons: (1) Richards was found to have violated the terms of his supervised release
for having possessed two distinct firearms (and ammunition) at two distinct times;
(2) his consecutive sentences were grounded on separate counts in the underlying
indictment, not on Charges 3 and 4 of the Amended Petition for Warrant for Person
Under Supervision; and (3) the consecutive sentences were not based solely on the
government proving Charges 3 and 4, but also on Richards’ admissions to Charges
5 and 6 and evidence concerning some of the conduct underlying Charge 1.

   Rejecting Richards’ sufficiency-of-the-evidence argument, the panel held that
when considered in the light most favorable to the government, a rational trier of
fact could have concluded that the preponderance of the evidence established that
Richards had possessed the firearms and ammunition.

   *
     This summary constitutes no part of the opinion of the court. It has been
prepared by court staff for the convenience of the reader.
                                    COUNSEL

Thomas G. Sprankling (argued) and Mark D. Flanagan, Wilmer Cutler Pickering
Hale and Dorr LLP, Palo Alto, California; Thomas B. Davidson, Wilmer Cutler
Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, San Francisco, California; for Defendant-Appellant.
Anne C. Hsieh (argued) and Thomas Green, Assistant United States Attorneys;
Matthew M. Yelovich, Appellate Section Chief, Criminal Division; Stephanie M.
Hinds, United States Attorney; United States Attorney’s Office; for Plaintiff-
Appellee.

                                     OPINION

CALLAHAN, Circuit Judge:

      James Richards appeals from the imposition of consecutive 24-month

sentences for violating the conditions of his supervised release for possession of

two guns and ammunition. He argues that the consecutive sentences: violate his

rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments as explained in United States v.

Haymond, 139 S. Ct. 2369 (2019); violate his rights under the Double Jeopardy

Clause; and are not supported by sufficient evidence. Although well presented by

counsel, Richards’ arguments on appeal are not persuasive.

                                          I

      In 2007, Richards was arrested for possession of crack cocaine and a gun.

He pled guilty to Count One, possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine, and

Count Three, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. He

was sentenced to 106 months of incarceration. Richards was released from prison

                                          1
in June 2016 and placed under supervised release. In June 2017, the terms of his

supervised release were modified to account for his substance and alcohol abuse

issues. In September 2018, Richards’ supervised release was revoked because of

his failure to properly communicate with his probation officer and for driving a

motorcycle on a suspended license. He was sentenced to two months in custody,

an additional 58 months of supervised release, directed to reside in a half-way

house for 10 months, and placed on GPS monitoring for the first 150 days of his

residence at the half-way house. In February 2019, Richards left the half-way

house without permission, for which the district court imposed additional GPS

monitoring and required Richards to abstain from alcohol.

      On March 6, 2020, a Petition for Warrant for Person Under Supervision was

filed charging Richards with calling “several witnesses, including a girlfriend, via a

mobile video connection, threaten[ing] to kill them, and show[ing] a black

handgun.”

      This appeal arises out of Richards’ actions two days later, on March 8, 2020.

At an evidentiary hearing concerning Richards’ alleged violations of supervised

release, a witness (Ms. Jones) testified that, while driving on Interstate 580, she

drove past a white pickup truck with wooden boards on its side and the driver

pointed a gun at her. She sped up to get away from the truck, but later while she

was trying to stay away from the truck, she saw it speed up, move from the left

                                           2
lane over to the right lane of the freeway, and exit on a ramp. She then saw the

driver of the truck throw something out the window, which she presumed was the

gun. Ms. Jones then called 911, told them what she had seen, and indicated where

the gun had been thrown.

      In response to the 911 call, an officer went to the area that Ms. Jones had

identified, but before he was able to locate the gun, he received a report “of a

wrong-way driver on northbound 880 Market Street offramp heading south in the

northbound direction of traffic.” He immediately drove to that location and saw a

white pickup truck parked and facing southbound on the northbound side of the

highway, near the center median. The officer observed a man standing in the bed

of the truck, throwing miscellaneous objects out of the truck. The individual

turned out to be James Richards. Richards appeared disheveled and was making

erratic statements. He got inside the cab and attempted to leave, but the officer

was able to extract and subdue him. Officers then found a Taurus .40 caliber

handgun lying near the center median where the truck had been stopped. The

firearm was loaded with a single round in the chamber with approximately four

rounds in the magazine and was free of dust, debris, and moisture.

      About an hour after her 911 call, Ms. Jones spoke to the same officer and

described to him where she thought the driver had tossed the gun. The officer

searched the area and found a firearm, a Glock 17, with one round in the chamber

                                          3
and approximately sixteen rounds of ammunition in its high-capacity magazine.

The officer testified that when he found the gun it was clean: “there was no dust or

debris on it or any kind of elements on it.” Ms. Jones subsequently identified

Richards as the person who pointed a gun at her and who later discarded what she

believed was the gun as he exited the highway.

      On March 17, 2020, the government filed an Amended Petition for Warrant

for Person Under Supervision asserting six charges. Charge 1 alleged that

Richards had violated California law by making criminal threats against an ex-

girlfriend and her friends. Charge 2 alleged that Richards’ behavior on the freeway

violated California law prohibiting carrying and brandishing a loaded firearm,

resisting arrest, driving the wrong way on a freeway, and assaulting a police

officer. Charge 3 alleged that Richards violated the condition of his supervised

release that he not possess a firearm, and Charge 4 alleged that he violated the

condition of his supervised release that he not possess ammunition. Charges 5 and

6 alleged that Richards had violated conditions of his release requiring him to

participate in a program of testing and treatment for drug abuse and to participate

in mental health counseling.

      Richards admitted to the allegations in Charges 5 and 6 but contested the

other charges. The district court held that much of the government’s proffered

evidence for Charge 1 was inadmissible hearsay and that Charge 1 was not proved.

                                          4
      After a two-day evidentiary hearing the district court found that the charges

of possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition had “been amply proved

by a preponderance of the evidence.” The district court explained:

      I find that at a minimum, charges three and four, possession of a
      firearm and possession of ammunition, have been amply proved by a
      preponderance of the evidence. There’s a credible witness that saw
      the defendant throw a gun out the window of his truck, it was
      recovered from where she said it would be recovered.

      There was a second firearm that was recovered when he drove the
      wrong way on the off ramp on 880, and I find that it is amply proven
      by a preponderance that the defendant committed these two violations.

With the court sustaining Charges 3 and 4, the government agreed to the dismissal

of Charge 2.

      The finding that Richards possessed a firearm triggered 18 U.S.C.

§ 3583(g)(2), which mandates revocation of supervised release and a term of

imprisonment pursuant to § 3583(e)(3), where the defendant “violates a condition

of supervised release prohibiting the defendant from possessing a firearm.” Based

on all six charged supervised release violations, the probation officer had

recommended a total sentence of 48 months imprisonment, consisting of a 24-

month sentence on Count One of the underlying original counts of conviction and a

concurrent sentence of 48 months on Count Three of the underlying counts of

conviction. But after the district court rejected Charge 1 of the supervised release

violations, the probation office recommended concurrent sentences of 24 months

                                          5
on each underlying count of conviction. Nonetheless, the district court imposed a

sentence of 48 months, consisting of 24 months on each count to run

consecutively. The district court entered judgment on June 24, 2021, and Richards

filed a timely notice of appeal.

                                          II
      Richards argues that 18 U.S.C. § 3583(g)’s requirement that a judge impose

a term of imprisonment based on conduct that constitutes a federal crime violates

the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. He contends that “the district court erred by

failing to require the government to prove that [he] possessed a firearm beyond a

reasonable doubt in front of a jury of his peers.” In essence, Richards invites us to

adopt the perspective of the plurality in Haymond, 139 S. Ct. 2369, and hold that a

“jury find beyond a reasonable doubt every fact” in order for him to be found to

have possessed a firearm or ammunition in violation of the conditions of his

supervised release. He asserts that the constitutional rights recognized in Apprendi

v. New Jersey¸ 530 U.S. 466 (2000), and Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. 99

(2013), should apply to his proceedings. See Haymond, 139 S. Ct. at 2381.

      Putting aside the question of whether the plurality opinion in Haymond is as

broad as Richards asserts, 1 Richards recognizes that Justice Breyer’s concurring

1
      The plurality’s language is somewhat constrained. It states: “As at the initial
sentencing hearing, that does not mean a jury must find every fact in a revocation
hearing that may affect the judge’s exercise of discretion within the range of

                                          6
opinion represents the narrowest ground supporting the Court’s ruling and is

controlling. See United States v. Henderson, 998 F.3d 1071, 1076 (9th Cir. 2021)

(“Justice Breyer’s separate concurrence in the judgment is therefore controlling.”).

Justice Breyer offered three grounds for agreeing with the plurality that 18 U.S.C.

§ 3583(k) was “less like ordinary revocation and more like punishment for a new

offense, to which the jury right would typically attach.” Haymond, 139 S. Ct. at

2386 (Breyer, J., concurring). The three grounds were that § 3583(k): (1) “applies

only when a defendant commits a discrete set of federal criminal offenses specified

in the statute”; (2) “takes away the judge’s discretion to decide whether violation

of a condition of supervised release should result in imprisonment and for how

long”; and (3) “limits the judge’s discretion in a particular manner: by imposing a

mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of ‘not less than 5 years.’” Id.

      Despite Richards’ assertions to the contrary, § 3583(g)(2) does not meet

these criteria. The first ground is arguably met as § 3583(g)(2) mandates a

punishments authorized by the jury’s verdict. But it does mean that a jury must
find any facts that trigger a new mandatory minimum prison term.” Haymond, 139
S. Ct. at 2380. It further noted: “As we have emphasized, our decision is limited to
§ 3583(k)—an unusual provision enacted little more than a decade ago—and the
Alleyne problem raised by its 5-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment .
 . . Section § 3583(e), which governs supervised release revocation proceedings
generally, does not contain any similar mandatory minimum triggered by judge-
found facts.” Id. at 2383-84 (citations omitted).

                                          7
sentence when the violation of supervised release involves a firearm. 2 But even if

the first ground were satisfied, the second criterion is met only in the most

technical of senses. Although a judge is mandated to impose a sentence, the judge

retains considerable discretion as to the length of the sentence and may impose a

sentence of a single day. Most importantly, in contrast to § 3583(k), which

imposed a mandatory minimum term of imprisonment of not less than 5 years, §

3583(g) imposes no such mandatory minimum. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(g) (“[T]he

court shall revoke the term of supervised release and require the defendant to serve

a term of imprisonment not to exceed the maximum term of imprisonment

authorized under subsection (e)(3).”).

      It follows that because § 3583(g) is more like “ordinary revocation” than

“punishment for a new offense,” neither Apprendi nor Alleyne apply to an ordinary

revocation of supervised release proceeding. This was the perspective of the four

dissenters in Haymond, and Justice Breyer stated in his separate concurrence that

he agreed with their assertion that “the role of the judge in a supervised-release

proceeding is consistent with traditional parole.” Haymond, 139 S. Ct. at 2385.

      This is also our holding in Henderson, 998 F.3d 1071. In Henderson, we

2
       But see United States v. Seighman, 966 F.3d 237, 242 (3d Cir. 2020) (stating
“subsection (g) applies to conduct that does not rise to the level of a federal
criminal offense, such as ‘refus[ing] to comply with drug testing’ or repeatedly
‘test[ing] positive for illegal controlled substances’”) (alterations in original).

                                          8
held that a defendant’s otherwise reasonable sentence for violating the terms of

supervised release could exceed, “when aggregated with the time the defendant

was imprisoned for the underlying crime, the maximum statutory sentence for the

underlying crime.” Id. at 1078. Implicit in this holding was the determination that,

as a constitutional matter, the determination of whether a defendant had violated a

condition of supervised release could be made by a judge without a jury, and that

the judge could determine the resulting sentence. Indeed, in United States v.

Oliver, 41 F.4th 1093, 1101 (9th Cir. 2022), we stated that Henderson “reaffirmed

that the Fifth and Sixth Amendments do not prohibit a § 3583(e) post-revocation

prison sentence based on judicial findings under a preponderance standard.” This

position is also consistent with the opinions of our sister circuits. 3 Thus, Richards

3
       See, e.g., United States v. Seighman, 966 F.3d 237, 242–44 (3d Cir. 2020)
(rejecting a challenge to revocation of supervised release under § 3583(g), the
Third Circuit noted that Justice Breyer agreed with the dissent that the “role of the
judge in a supervised-release proceeding is consistent with traditional parole,”
Haymond, 139 S. Ct. at 2385, and found that subsection (g) does not apply to a
discrete set of federal criminal offenses, does not limit the judge’s discretion in the
same manner as subsection (k), and does not mandate a lengthy prison sentence).

United States v. Coston, 964 F.3d 289, 296 (4th Cir. 2020) (“Overall, § 3583(g)
likely does not meet Justice Breyer’s controlling test. And given that no majority
of the Supreme Court endorsed the application of Alleyne in the supervised release
context, we remain bound by this Court’s prior decision that it does not.”).

United States v. Garner, 969 F.3d 550, 553 (5th Cir. 2020) (holding that § 3583(g)
is not unconstitutional under Haymond because (1) although it singles out certain
conduct, only some of it is criminal, (2) although it takes away the judge’s

                                           9
has not shown that having a judge determine, based on a preponderance of the

evidence, that he violated the conditions of his supervised release and would be

sentenced to 48 months of incarceration, violated his constitutional rights.

      Furthermore, Richards admits that because he did not raise this issue before

the district court, he must establish plain error to prevail. Plain error is “‘(1) error,

(2) that is plain, and (3) that affects substantial rights.’” United States v. Ameline,

409 F.3d 1073, 1078 (9th Cir. 2005) (en banc) (quoting United States v. Cotton,

535 U.S. 625, 631 (2002)). “If these three conditions of the plain error test are

met, an appellate court may exercise its discretion to notice a forfeited error that

discretion, it doesn’t dictate the length of the sentence, and (3) it “doesn’t limit the
judge’s discretion in the same ‘particular manner’ as Subsection (k)”).

United States v. Childs, 17 F.4th 790, 792 (8th Cir. 2021) (rejecting Childs’ claim
that the revocation of supervised release was unconstitutional because it exceeded
the statutory maximum for his underlying conviction, the Eighth Circuit
approvingly cited Henderson as holding that Haymond “did not overrule prior
opinions ‘which held a term of supervised release may extend beyond the statutory
maximum for the underlying substantive offense’”).

United States v. Salazar, 987 F.3d 1248, 1259–60 (10th Cir. 2021) (noting that
Justice Breyer would not transplant the Apprendi line of cases to the supervised-
release context and that “[o]ther circuits have also rejected the argument that
Haymond undermines prior holdings that Apprendi has no role to play in
supervised-release proceedings”).

United States v. Moore, 22 F.4th 1258, 1268 (11th Cir. 2022) (finding that Justice
Breyer’s controlling concurrence in Haymond “does not transport the Apprendi
line of cases to the supervised-release context”).

                                           10
. . . ‘seriously affects the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial

proceedings.’” Id. (quoting Cotton, 535 U.S at 631). Here, Richards has not

shown that the district court, in conforming to the traditional standard for parole

hearings, and applying § 3583(g) as directed by our opinion in Henderson, erred,

let alone plainly erred. Richards thus has not shown that the district court violated

his rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.

                                            III

       Richards’ second argument is that “imposing two consecutive twenty-four-

month sentences for the same underlying conduct—i.e., possession of a loaded

firearm”—violates the Fifth Amendment. He bases his argument on the Double

Jeopardy Clause and United States v. Keen, 104 F.3d 1111 (9th Cir. 1996). He

recognizes that Congress has the power to punish a felon twice for being

simultaneously in possession of a firearm and ammunition, but argues, citing Keen,

104 F.3d at 1118–20, that Congress “must speak clearly when it wishes to do so.”

Richards asserts that the “relevant text of the felon in possession of a firearm

statute and the firearm condition of Mr. Richards’ supervised release are nearly

identical.” He concludes that therefore he should not be given consecutive

sentences based on violating Charges 3 and 4 in the Amended Petition. He claims

that both the Haymond plurality and Justice Breyer necessarily recognized that

basic criminal procedural protections can apply in the supervised release context.

                                            11
Richards asserts that in Keen we held that punishing a defendant twice for

simultaneously possessing a firearm and ammunition violates Double Jeopardy.

      Richards further asserts that even if we conclude “that the Fifth

Amendment’s Double Jeopardy Clause does not directly apply to” his case, we

should nonetheless hold that his consecutive sentences violate the Fifth

Amendment’s Due Process Clause because “[w]ithout at least a basic due process

limitation on a district court’s ability to impose punishment for multiple violations

of the same condition of supervised release, a court could—for example—punish a

defendant like Mr. Richards with two separate 24-month sentences for possessing

two different bullets.” In addition, Richards asserts that any ambiguity should be

resolved in his favor under the rule of lenity.

      Initially, we note that 18 U.S.C. § 3584(a) “confers discretion to impose

consecutive or concurrent imprisonment terms upon revocation of concurrent

supervised release terms.”4 United States v. Campbell, 937 F.3d 1254, 1257 (9th

Cir. 2019). Nonetheless, a constitutional challenge to a revocation sentence is

reviewed de novo, Henderson, 998 F.3d at 1073, and the decision to revoke

supervised release is reviewed for abuse of discretion. United States v. Hilger, 728

F.3d 947, 951 (9th Cir. 2013). In addition, a harmless error standard applies to

4
      The considerable discretion given the sentencing court by § 3584(a)
undercuts Richards’ argument for lenity. See United States v. Campbell, 937 F.3d
1254, 1258 (9th Cir. 2019).

                                          12
alleged Apprendi errors. Henderson, 998 F.3d at 1073–74. Furthermore, where a

defendant fails to raise an issue before the district court, we review the district

court’s decision for plain error. United States v. Zalapa, 509 F.3d 1060, 1064 (9th

Cir. 2007).

      Richards’ arguments on appeal fail for three reasons: (1) he was found to

have violated the terms of his supervised release for having possessed two distinct

firearms (and ammunition) at two distinct times; (2) his consecutive sentences

were grounded on separate counts in the underlying indictment, not on Charges 3

and 4 of the Amended Petition; and (3) the consecutive sentences were not based

solely on the government proving Charges 3 and 4, but also on Richards’

admissions to Charges 5 and 6 and evidence concerning some of the conduct

underlying Charge 1.

                                           A.

      Richards’ consecutive 24-month sentences were not imposed for “the same

underlying conduct—i.e., possession of a loaded firearm.” Rather, the district

court explained:

      Taking all those factors into account and having heard the evidentiary
      record in this case, I do find that the 48-month sentence that’s
      recommended by the Probation Department is warranted, taking all
      those factors into account, including the nature of the offenses here
      and the fact that there were two separate firearms and ammunition
      possessed, the nature of the disturbing conduct that was described by
      the witnesses, and the threat charge.

                                           13
      The fact that “there were two separate firearms and ammunition”

distinguishes this case from Keen, 104 F.3d at 1119, where we held that the

simultaneous possession of a firearm and ammunition did not constitute “separate

units of prosecution.” As we recognized in Keen, multiple counts of unlawful

possession of a firearm by a felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) are permitted

when the firearms were “acquired at different times or stored in separate places.”

104 F.3d at 1118 n.11. Similar reasoning applies here and confirms that, in

assessing Richards’ violation of the supervised-release condition that he not

possess a firearm, the district court could properly consider that Richards

possessed two distinct firearms in different places on different occasions. Indeed,

he had already disposed of the first firearm at the time that he possessed the second

firearm, thereby underscoring the wholly separate nature of the two distinct

instances of possession. Clearly, different evidence supports the determinations

that he possessed each firearm and its ammunition. Richards has not shown that

consecutive sentences for his possession of two separate firearms with ammunition

is a violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause.

                                         B.

      Richards’ assertion that he may not be given consecutive sentences for an

action that simultaneously violated Charges 3 and 4 in the Amended Petition fails

to recognize that the consecutive sentences were based not on Charges 3 and 4, but

                                         14
on Counts One and Three of the underlying indictment. At the government’s

urging, the district court clarified that the consecutive sentences were based on

Counts One and Three of the underlying indictment. The district judge stated:

      And just so that the record is clear, the term shall consist of 24 months
      on Count One and 24 months on Count Three, to run concurrently—
      I’m sorry—to run consecutively.

Thus, while the district court found that the government proved Charges 3 and 4 of

the Amended Petition, it used that determination to impose consecutive sentences

based on Count One (possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine) and Count

Three (possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime) of Richards’

underlying indictment.

      This is consistent with our opinion in Henderson, which affirms our holding

in United States v. Purvis, 940 F.2d 1276 (9th Cir. 1991), that “a revocation

sentence is part of the maximum sentence authorized for the underlying offense.”

Henderson, 998 F.3d at 1074. We further held that “Henderson’s term of

supervised release was imposed as part of his original sentence.” Id. at 1076.

Furthermore, in Henderson, we affirmed a revocation sentence that resulted in an

aggregate sentence of incarceration beyond the statutory maximum term of

imprisonment under the statute of conviction for the underlying offense. Here, the

maximum sentence of imprisonment authorized upon revocation of supervised

release on Count Three alone was five years. See 18 U.S.C. § 3583(e)(3).

                                         15
Moreover, the district court noted that the maximum term of imprisonment for

Richards’ underlying convictions was a life sentence. The total sentence of 48

months did not exceed the statutory maximum of five years, and Richards was not

prejudiced by the district court’s decision to allocate the total sentence between the

two underlying counts in the way that it did. Nor does Richards contend that the

24-month sentence allocated to Count One exceeded the statutory maximum

authorized for that count under § 3583(e)(3). 5

                                          C.

      Third, the consecutive sentences were not based solely on Charges 3 and 4

in the Amended Petition, but also on Richards’ admission to Charges 5 and 6, as

well as evidence related to some of the underlying conduct at issue in Charge 1.

The district court stated that it was taking all the factors and evidence into account,

including “the nature and the disturbing conduct that was described by the

witnesses,” even though not all of the elements of Charge 1 were “proven by a

preponderance.” Moreover, we have held that “[a] district court has discretion to

impose concurrent or consecutive sentences after revocation of multiple concurrent

5
       The government further asserts that “even if the district court had revoked
Richard’s supervised release and imposed consecutive imprisonment terms based
on a single violation,” his double jeopardy claim would fail under United States v.
Clark, 984 F.2d 319, 320 (9th Cir. 1993). Because we determine that the district
court did not “impose consecutive imprisonment terms based on a single violation”
we need not, and do not, address this assertion.

                                          16
terms of supervised release.” United States v. Xinidakis, 598 F.3d 1213, 1217 (9th

Cir. 2010); see also Campbell, 937 F.3d at 1257. Richards’ claim is undercut not

only by the fact that his consecutive sentences were based on the government’s

showing on four charges but also by other evidence, including a jail call recorded

after Richards’ arrest in which he told an associate that he had additional guns.

      We further note that because it appears Richards did not raise his Double

Jeopardy Clause claim in the district court, he would have to show plain error to be

entitled to relief, see Zalapa, 509 F.3d at 1064, but he has not done so. Richards

has not shown that the district court violated the Double Jeopardy Clause or abused

its discretion by imposing consecutive sentences based on Counts One and Three

of the underlying indictment.

                                         IV

      Richards recognizes that on a sufficiency of the evidence challenge, the

issue is “whether viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the

government, any rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of a

violation by a preponderance of the evidence.” United States v. King, 608 F.3d

1122, 1129 (9th Cir. 2010) (cleaned up). Nonetheless, Richards contends that the

government presented insufficient evidence to establish that he possessed either

firearm. He argues that the fact that the Taurus handgun was found near where he

was arrested on the freeway off-ramp is insufficient to show actual possession “as

                                         17
there was no evidence that Mr. Richards ever had physical control over the

Taurus—no fingerprints, pictures, eyewitness testimony, or anything else.”

Similarly, the loaded Glock 17 handgun was found along the side of a public

highway “over a mile from where Mr. Richards was arrested.” He asserts that “the

government offered no forensic evidence linking the gun or ammunition to Mr.

Richards,” and notes that the witness only assumed that the object thrown from the

pickup truck was a gun and that the police did not find the Glock in the first search.

      We cannot conclude, viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the

government, that the judge could not reasonably find, based on a preponderance of

the evidence, that both guns (and the ammunition) had been possessed by

Richards. See United States v. Nevils, 598 F.3d 1158, 1164 (9th Cir. 2010) (en

banc) (“[W]hen ‘faced with a record of historical facts that supports conflicting

inferences’ a reviewing court ‘must presume—even if it does not affirmatively

appear in the record—that the trier of fact resolved any such conflict in favor of the

prosecution and must defer to that resolution.’” (quoting Jackson v. Virginia, 443

U.S. 307, 326 (1979))). When found, both guns were free of dust, debris, and

moisture. One was located where a credible witness testified that she had seen

Richards throw it and the other was lying among the debris that Richards had

thrown out of the back of his truck. Furthermore, in a recorded jail call, Richards

admitted to possessing other weapons that were hidden. Perhaps other

                                         18
explanations were possible, but none seems as likely as Richards having discarded

the guns shortly before his arrest. Richards has not shown that there was

insufficient evidence to support the determination that he had violated the

conditions of his supervised release.

                                         V

      Richards has not shown that the district court violated his rights under the

Double Jeopardy Clause or abused its discretion in giving Richards two

consecutive 24-month sentences for violating his conditions of supervised release.

The district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Richards had

possessed two separate firearms (with ammunition). We reject Richards’ claim

that his violations should have been determined beyond a reasonable doubt by a

jury, as that argument is not supported by Justice Breyer’s controlling concurring

opinion in Haymond, was previously rejected in Henderson, and has been

uniformly rejected by our sister circuits. We reject Richards’ challenges to his

consecutive sentences because he was found to have possessed two distinct

firearms (with ammunition) which were found in different places and at different

times. Moreover, the district court based the sentences on two distinct counts in

Richards’ underlying indictment, and the consecutive sentences are supported by

evidence proving four charges in the Amended Petition as well as evidence

concerning a fifth charge. Finally, Richards has not shown that, when considered

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in the light most favorable to the government, a rational trier of fact could not have

concluded that the preponderance of evidence established that Richards had

possessed the firearms and ammunition.

      The district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.

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