01-1117 U.S. v. Jones

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“[T]he district court applied a 17-level upward departure to Jones’ criminal contempt sentence, resulting in an offense level of 24 and a sentence of 76 months imprisonment. Jones’ applicable range for the drug convictions was 188 to 235 months imprisonment, and the district court stated that it would have sentenced Jones to 210 months imprisonment had no downward departure been applied to Jones’ drug sentence because it was its normal practice to sentence defendants to the middle of the applicable range. The district court then added the 66 months (210 months minus 144 months) to the 10 month sentence from the applicable range under Guideline sec. 2J1.5. As Jones concedes in his opening brief, ‘the 66 months [were] required to take back Mr. Jones’ 5K1.1 departure.’ Therefore, the extent of the upward departure in this case was reasonable ‘because it took away the benefit conferred upon’ Jones by the downward departure applied to his drug sentence. Simmons, 215 F.3d at 743 (quotation omitted).”

Affirmed.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, Mills, J., Kanne, J.