United States v. Harvey Shaner, Jr.
United States v. Harvey Shaner, Jr.
Opinion
NOT PRECEDENTIAL
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT __________
No. 20-1541 __________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
HARVEY M. SHANER, JR., Appellant __________
On Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 5-18-cr-00056-001) Honorable Edward G. Smith, U.S. District Judge __________
Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) on January 12, 2021
Before: AMBRO, KRAUSE, and PHIPPS, Circuit Judges
(Opinion filed: May 24, 2021) __________
OPINION* __________
KRAUSE, Circuit Judge.
* This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. Appellant Harvey Shaner pleaded guilty to escape, failure to surrender, and
possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, in violation, respectively, of
18 U.S.C. §§ 751(a), 3146(a)(2), and 922(g)(1). He now challenges the thirty-three-month prison
sentence the District Court imposed on those counts. In addition, in supplemental briefing
following United States v. Nasir,
982 F.3d 144(3d Cir. 2020), Shaner argues that his
conviction under § 922(g) should be vacated if he did not allocute to knowledge of his
status as a felon in his plea colloquy. Because we perceive no error in Shaner’s sentence
nor plain error in his conviction, we will affirm.
I. Discussion1
Shaner contends that his sentence was procedurally and substantively unreasonable,
see United States v. Fountain,
792 F.3d 310, 322(3d Cir. 2015), and that his § 922(g)
conviction cannot stand in the wake of Nasir. Neither argument is persuasive.
Procedurally, Shaner argues that the District Court did not meaningfully evaluate
the sentencing factors in
18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) because the Court’s discussion was cursory
and vague. He also objects that it glossed over certain aspects of his case, including his
mental and physical health problems, his post-conviction conduct, and the fact that, as a
skilled craftsman, he can pay restitution in a related case where he was convicted for fraud.
1 The District Court had jurisdiction under
18 U.S.C. § 3231and we have jurisdiction under
28 U.S.C. § 1291and
18 U.S.C. § 3742. We review the substantive reasonableness of a sentence for abuse of discretion, United States v. Tomko,
562 F.3d 558, 567(3d Cir. 2009) (en banc), and we likewise review a District Court’s decision to impose a concurrent or consecutive sentence for abuse of discretion, United States v. Swan,
275 F.3d 272, 275(3d Cir. 2002). Where, as here, a defendant did not raise a procedural objection in the District Court, we review procedural reasonableness for plain error. United States v. Flores-Mejia,
759 F.3d 253, 256(3d Cir. 2014). 2 But a district court “need not . . . ‘discuss and make findings as to each of the § 3553(a)
factors if the record makes clear the court took the factors into account,’” United States v.
Bungar,
478 F.3d 540, 543(3d Cir. 2007), and the District Court here expressly addressed
not only such § 3553(a) factors as deterrence, the need for treatment, and the seriousness
of the offense,
18 U.S.C. § 3553(a)(1)–(2), but also Shaner’s post-conviction conduct and
his mental health and medical concerns. In light of the District Court’s lengthy and detailed
analysis of the sentencing factors and its assurance that it considered all of the information
that was provided to it, we are satisfied that Shaner’s sentence was procedurally reasonable.
As for substantive unreasonableness, Shaner claims that because his sentence will
run consecutively to his pre-existing fifty-one-month sentence for fraud, it fails to account
for his health, his age, and his ability to pay restitution in his fraud case. But substantive
reasonableness review is “highly deferential,” Bungar,
478 F.3d at 543, and “[s]entences
that fall within the applicable Guidelines range,” as Shaner’s does here, “are more likely
to be reasonable than those that do not,” Fountain,
792 F.3d at 322. Especially considering
the District Court’s finding that Shaner created a very dangerous situation when he fled
from law enforcement, which put police officers and bystanders at risk of serious bodily
injury or death, and given that his sentence for failure to surrender must “be consecutive to
the sentence of imprisonment for any other offense,”
18 U.S.C. § 3146(b)(2), we cannot
say that “no reasonable sentencing court would have imposed the same [consecutive]
sentence” at the high end of the Guidelines range, United States v. Tomko,
562 F.3d 558, 568(3d Cir. 2009) (en banc).
3 Finally, in urging that his § 922(g) conviction is invalid under Rehaif v. United
States,
139 S. Ct. 2191(2019), and Nasir, Shaner points out that he was not explicitly asked
and did not explicitly allocute to the element of knowledge of his felon status in the course
of his guilty plea. Although we have not squarely addressed Rehaif errors in the plea
context, we explained in Nasir that the government is not “free to ignore the elements of
the charged offense at a plea colloquy” and “must always make a record demonstrating a
factual basis for the crime to which the plea is entered,”
982 F.3d at 166n.21, so we assume
for purposes of this appeal that “[p]roof of knowledge of status is now essential” in a guilty
plea under § 922(g), id. at 160.
Because Shaner failed to raise this argument in the District Court, we review for
plain error, id., and we find none here. While Shaner’s guilty plea did not reference the
scienter element of § 922(g), in violation of Rehaif,
139 S. Ct. at 2194, he did admit that
he possessed a revolver while fleeing from law enforcement officers who were trying to
take him into custody to serve his fifty-one-month sentence for fraud. That is sufficient in
the record of a plea proceeding “to show that [Shaner] was aware of his status as a felon at
the [relevant] time.” Nasir,
982 F.3d at 170n.29. As a result, any error did not “affect[]
his substantial rights,”
id. at 171, and therefore does not rise to the level of plain error.
II. Conclusion
For the foregoing reasons, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.
4
Reference
- Status
- Unpublished