By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//December 12, 2022//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: United States of America v. Deandre Smith
Case No.: 22-1447
Officials: Rovner, St. Eve, and Kirsch, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Sentencing
Smith appeals his sentence of 120 months’ imprisonment for five narcotics and firearms convictions. For the reasons stated below.
An informant purchased 3.1 grams of methamphetamine from Smith. Later, an undercover agent purchased 0.7 grams of fentanyl and heroin from Smith. Smith was subsequently arrested on an outstanding warrant, carrying a loaded semiautomatic handgun; 23 packages collectively containing 3.1 grams of fentanyl and heroin; several hundred dollars in cash; and a digital scale bearing fentanyl residue.
Smith purports to raise both procedural and substantive challenges to his sentence, but his only real arguments are procedural. His substantive arguments merely recast the procedural errors he identifies as abuses of discretion.
Smith has failed to show that the district court committed any procedural error, and his below-Guidelines-range sentence is substantively reasonable.
Affirmed.
Decided 12/08/22