United States v. Vineyard

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 99-4078 GEORGE C. VINEYARD, JR., Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Norfolk. Rebecca B. Smith, District Judge. (CR-91-89-N) Submitted: July 20, 1999 Decided: August 4, 1999 Before MURNAGHAN, ERVIN, and TRAXLER, Circuit Judges. _________________________________________________________________ Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. _________________________________________________________________ COUNSEL M. Woodrow Griffin, Jr., Hampton, Virginia, for Appellant. Helen F. Fahey, United States Attorney, Robert E. Bradenham II, Assistant United States Attorney, Sean P. Henseler, Special Assistant United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee. _________________________________________________________________ Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). OPINION PER CURIAM: George C. Vineyard appeals an order of the district court revoking his supervised release and imposing a three-year term of imprison- ment. Acting pro se, Vineyard has also requested leave to file a sup- plemental brief and moved for appointment of new counsel, for leave to file a response to the reply brief (should one be filed), and to expe- dite the appeal. We grant leave to file the supplemental brief, deny the remaining motions, and affirm the sentence. When imposing sentence after revocation of supervised release, the district court must consider various factors, including the applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission. See 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 3553(a)(4)(B), 3583(e) (West Supp. 1999). However, a sentencing court is not required to impose a sentence within the range recommended in Chapter 7 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. See United States v. Davis, 53 F.3d 638, 639 n.1 (4th Cir. 1995). The sentence should thus be affirmed unless it is plainly unrea- sonable. See 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a)(4) (1994). Given the number and duration of the violations, and the district court's finding that Vine- yard had not made a serious attempt to comply with the terms of his supervised release, we find that the sentence was not plainly unrea- sonable. We grant Vineyard's motion for leave to file a supplemental brief. However, we find that the issues raised by Vineyard in his supple- mental brief are without merit. We therefore affirm the conviction and sentence. We deny the motion for appointment of new counsel and deny as moot the motion for leave to file a response to the govern- ment's reply brief and the motion to expedite. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal conten- tions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED 2