Sentencing Guidelines

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Miles Musgraves

Case No.: 16-4160

Officials: EASTERBROOK, ROVNER, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines

This is defendant Miles Musgraves’ second appeal from his 2015 convictions and sentences on drug and firearm charges. He was first sentenced as a career offender to 240 months in prison. In Musgraves’ first appeal, we reversed three of his five convictions and remanded for resentencing. On remand the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence that Musgraves engaged in some of the acquitted conduct: drug distribution and possession of a firearm as a felon. The district court also found that, despite the reversed convictions, Musgraves was still a career offender. Upon resentencing, the court imposed the same sentence of 240 months.

In this appeal, Musgraves challenges the district court’s findings that he committed the acquitted conduct and is a career offender. He also argues that imposing the same sentence on remand was substantively unreasonable. We affirm. The district court’s factual findings on the acquitted conduct are supported by a preponderance of the evidence, which is sufficient for purposes of guideline sentencing. As for the career offender enhancement, even if the judge was wrong under the Guidelines, he made clear that any such error would have been harmless. Finally, Musgraves’ sentence is not substantively unreasonable.

The district court adequately explained its sentencing decision here. The court reviewed the § 3553(a) factors at length and explained why the guideline range (without the career criminal enhancement) did not adequately reflect the seriousness of Musgraves’ conduct. See Taylor, 701 F.3d at 1175 (up‐ holding above‐range sentence when district court explained why Guidelines did not reflect seriousness of offense). Musgraves’ willingness to frame Smith and to expose him to up to 30 years in prison is egregious conduct not reflected in the guideline calculations. The district court also considered prior convictions that, due to their age, did not affect Musgraves’ criminal history points. The court found that the prior convictions showed a pattern of gun possession and drug dealing that continued to the present case. That pattern, combined with Musgraves’ lack of verifiable employment history at age 44, caused the court to conclude that Musgraves was likely to offend again. Finally, the court found that a higher sentence was warranted because Musgraves had sold drugs in front of his girlfriend’s children and next to a school. From this, the court concluded that 240 months was the appropriate sentence. The decision was not an abuse of discretion, and the sentence is not unreasonable.

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing partner at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.