United States v. DuPriest
Decision Date | 27 July 2015 |
Docket Number | No. 14–2419.,14–2419. |
Citation | 794 F.3d 881 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Montrell DuPRIEST, Defendant–Appellant. |
Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit |
Jonathan H. Koenig, Office of the United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Milwaukee, WI, for Plaintiff–Appellee.
Daniel J. Hillis, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Springfield, IL, Thomas W. Patton, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Peoria, IL, for Defendant–Appellant.
Before RIPPLE, KANNE and TINDER, Circuit Judges.
This case comes before us on a second appeal from a supervised release revocation hearing. The first time we heard this case, we remanded for resentencing after the government conceded that the term of imprisonment—eighteen months—exceeded the statutory maximum by six months. This time, the issue before us is whether the district court failed to consider the relevant 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors before resentencing Appellant Montrell DuPriest.1
In 2006, DuPriest pled guilty to one count of “Use of a Telephone to Facilitate a Drug Trafficking Crime.” Notably, Judge Stadtmueller served as the sentencing judge for that offense. He sentenced DuPriest to a forty-eight-month term of imprisonment and a twelve-month term of supervised release. Judge Stadtmueller ran the sentence concurrently with DuPriest's related state sentence in Wisconsin.
DuPriest was released from confinement on November 15, 2012. Five months later, while serving his concurrent terms of state and federal supervised release, Milwaukee police arrested DuPriest after observing him enter an abandoned house. The officers searched him and found a pistol and forty-three small bags of marijuana. The State of Wisconsin charged DuPriest in Milwaukee County Court with possession of a firearm and possession with intent to deliver THC. Wisconsin dismissed those charges once the federal government took over prosecution, but it did seek incarceration for the violation of his state supervised release. He eventually received an eighteen-month sentence on the state violation.
DuPriest subsequently pled guilty to the federal offense of being a felon in possession of a firearm under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). That plea had two immediate consequences. First, it meant that DuPriest would be sentenced for the firearm offense under § 922(g). And second, it meant that DuPriest would then face mandatory revocation and a second term of imprisonment for violating the terms of his federal supervised release. 18 U.S.C. § 3583(g).
District Judge Adelman served as the sentencing judge for the underlying § 922(g) offense. He sentenced DuPriest to a thirty-three-month term of imprisonment and a twenty-four-month term of supervised release. Judge Adelman ran that sentence concurrently to DuPriest's eighteen-month state revocation sentence.
In consideration for DuPriest's guilty plea before Judge Adelman, the government agreed to recommend a federal revocation sentence that would run concurrently with his sentence for the underlying crime under § 922(g). The government upheld its end of the bargain. The only question that remained was whether the judge at the revocation hearing would go along with it.
Re-enter Judge Stadtmueller, the same judge who sentenced DuPriest in 2006. He presided over DuPriest's revocation hearing. He disagreed with the government's recommendation for a concurrent sentence. He subsequently issued an eighteen-month term of imprisonment, with nine of those months to be served concurrently to the sentence for the underlying crime, and the remaining nine to be served consecutively. Judge Stadtmueller justified the consecutive portion of the sentence by emphasizing the need for incremental punishment.
As mentioned in our introduction, DuPriest appealed the revocation sentence, and the government conceded error on appeal. Given the sentence miscalculation—eighteen months was clearly six months more than the statutory maximum—we remanded for resentencing on the revocation issue.
On remand, Judge Stadtmueller again served as the sentencing judge. This marked the third time in ten years that he sentenced DuPriest. Pursuant to the terms of the original plea deal, the government asked for a twelve-month concurrent sentence. DuPriest's attorney asked for a five-month term of imprisonment to run consecutively to the imprisonment for § 922(g) offense.
Judge Stadtmueller rejected both requests. He issued the statutory maximum twelve-month sentence. And as before, he made half the sentence concurrent and the other half consecutive. As justification, Judge Stadtmueller again relied on the need for incremental punishment. Then he went a step further. Over the course of three transcribed pages, Judge Stadtmueller explained the reasons behind his sentence. We reproduce his explanation in its entirety here:
(Sent. Tr. 7–9.)
DuPriest appeals. He argues that the district court did not consider a number of the sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) : (1) the nature and circumstances of his arrest; (2) his history and characteristics; (3)...
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