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Sentencing Guidelines

By: Derek Hawkins//August 14, 2018//

Sentencing Guidelines

By: Derek Hawkins//August 14, 2018//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. John Thomas

Case No.: 17-1002

Officials: FLAUM, SYKES, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Sentencing Guidelines

Whitney “Strawberry” Blackwell stole cash and drugs from defendant-appellant John Thomas. His effort to punish her and recover his cash and drugs has landed him in federal prison with a life sentence. Thomas kidnapped Blackwell’s younger brother and sister in Indiana and had them taken to Michigan and Kentucky, respectively, before law enforcement tracked them down.

Thomas raises four issues on appeal: (a) that Blackwell was allowed to offer inadmissible and prejudicial testimony for the prosecution; (b) that the district court should have excluded cell-site location information about cell phones associated with Thomas; (c) that the court erred in its Sentencing Guideline calculations; and (d) that the court erred under Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. 99 (2013), by failing to have the jury decide that the kidnapping victims were under 18 years old, which increased the mandatory minimum sentence. Thomas did not raise any of these issues in the district court.

We affirm the convictions and sentence. We first review the facts of the case and then turn to Thomas’s new arguments. To summarize our conclusions: (a) the district court did not plainly err in dealing with Blackwell’s testimony and her apparent inability to follow instructions about answering what she was asked and not raising certain subjects; (b) the court did not err by admitting the cell-site location evidence where Thomas did not move to suppress or even object to that evidence; (c) the court did not plainly err in its guideline calculation; and (d) the court made an Alleyne error regarding the ages of the kidnapping victims, but the error was harmless, calling for no remedy under the plain-error doctrine.

Affirmed

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