UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FILED
United States Court of Appeals
TENTH CIRCUIT Tenth Circuit
January 25, 2010
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Elisabeth A. Shumaker
Clerk of Court
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v. No. 09-3155
(D.C. No. 2:08-CR-20142-KHV-1)
JEFFREY W. PETERS, (D. Kan.)
Defendant-Appellant.
ORDER AND JUDGMENT *
Before LUCERO, McKAY, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
After examining the briefs and the appellate record, this panel has
determined unanimously to grant the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs
without oral argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f).
In this direct criminal appeal, Defendant Jeffrey Peters raises a challenge to
the substantive reasonableness of his sentence. Defendant pled guilty to two
counts of possessing a firearm as an unlawful user of a controlled substance in
violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(3) and 924(a)(2). Based on his prior convictions
*
This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the
doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited,
however, for its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th
Cir. R. 32.1.
for assault, domestic assault, and possession of a controlled substance, as well as
the fact that he was on probation at the time he committed the instance offense,
Defendant’s criminal history was established as category III under the sentencing
guidelines. Combined with an offense level of twelve, this led to an advisory
guideline range of fifteen to twenty-one months of imprisonment. After
considering Defendant’s arguments for a variance below this guideline range, the
court sentenced Defendant to a fifteen-month sentence on each count, running
concurrently.
On appeal, Defendant argues the sentence imposed was substantively
unreasonable in light of the totality of the circumstances. He argues that the
guidelines calculation overstated his risk of recidivism and the danger he posed to
the public, while the sentence imposed did not take into account the minimal
culpability of the conduct for which he was convicted. He points out that none of
his prior convictions were felonies, nor did any of his prior convictions involve
the use of firearms or other weapons. He also argues that the offense was not
serious—he possessed two shotguns which he sold to undercover officers at a
pawn shop, but he did not use these shotguns illegally, carry them for extensive
periods of time, or conceal his possession of them. He further asserts that he
fully complied with the terms and conditions of his pretrial release and
demonstrated the ability and resolve to overcome his long-term drug addiction
problems during that time. In light of all of these factors, Defendant argues, the
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district court should have imposed a below-guidelines sentence.
We review the substantive reasonableness of a sentence under an abuse of
discretion standard, United States v. Haley, 529 F.3d 1308, 1311 (10th Cir. 2008),
and we conclude that the sentence imposed in this case did not constitute an abuse
of discretion. While Defendant’s criminal history may not have included any
felonies or convictions on firearm-related charges, it nonetheless included
multiple non-trivial offenses—including recent convictions on two counts of
domestic assault for an incident in which Defendant violently attacked his
girlfriend—which make us unwilling to agree with Defendant that his criminal
history overstated the danger he posed to the public. We are also not persuaded
that the nature and circumstances of the offense or Defendant’s history and
characteristics caused the district court’s judgment to fall outside “the realm of . .
. rationally available [sentencing] choices.” United States v. McComb, 519 F.3d
1049, 1053 (10th Cir. 2007). Considering the record as a whole, we see nothing
constituting an abuse of discretion in the district court’s rejection of Defendant’s
request for a downward variance. Defendant’s conviction and sentence are
AFFIRMED.
Entered for the Court
Monroe G. McKay
Circuit Judge
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