Criminal Law:Felon in Possession of a Firearm-Upward Variation of Sentence-Substantive Unreasonableness

Defendant pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm. The district court determined defendant’s advisory guidelines sentencing range at 70 to 87 months’ imprisonment but instead imposed a 99-month sentence. Defendant appealed, challenging his sentence as substantively unreasonable.

District court could vary upward a sentence based on prior criminal history, even when that prior history already had been accounted for in the advisory guidelines sentencing, and properly exercised discretion to vary upward based on dangerous nature of defendant’s offense and the determination that his conduct posed a danger to the public.

Judgment is affirmed.

U.S. v. Grant (MLW No. 72198/Case No 17-2846 – 2 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, per curiam) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Western District of Missouri