USCA4 Appeal: 24-4238 Doc: 33 Filed: 12/19/2024 Pg: 1 of 3

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 24-4238

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

SHAFEEQ MUHAMMAD,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, at Asheville. Martin K. Reidinger, Chief District Judge. (1:06-cr-00013-MR-WCM-1)

Submitted: December 12, 2024 Decided: December 19, 2024

Before GREGORY, AGEE, and THACKER, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

ON BRIEF: Matthew C. Joseph, LAW OFFICE OF MATTHEW C. JOSEPH PLLC, Charlotte, North Carolina, for Appellant. Dena J. King, United States Attorney, Charlotte, North Carolina, Amy E. Ray, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Asheville, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 24-4238 Doc: 33 Filed: 12/19/2024 Pg: 2 of 3

PER CURIAM:

In 2007, Shafeeq Ameer Malik Muhammad pleaded guilty to conspiracy to

distribute cocaine base, in violation of

. The district court sentenced

Muhammad to 190 months of imprisonment followed by four years of supervised release.

After his release from incarceration, the district court twice revoked Muhammad’s

supervised release for violating the conditions of his supervision. After the second

revocation, the court imposed a 12-month term of supervised release, including a condition

requiring Muhammad to spend the first six months of that term in a halfway house and

comply with the program’s rules.

Shortly after his release, Muhammad’s probation officer filed a petition for

revocation of his supervised release for failing to complete six months in the halfway house

and failing to notify his probation officer of a change in his address within 72 hours.

Following a hearing, the district court found Muhammad had violated the terms of his

supervised release. The court revoked his supervised release and sentence Muhammad to

12 months and one day of imprisonment, with no further term of supervision to follow.

Muhammad now appeals. On appeal, Muhammad argues that the district court abused its

discretion in revoking his supervised release.

We review a district court’s decision to revoke supervised release for abuse of

discretion. United States v. Dennison,

(4th Cir. 2019). A district court

may revoke a defendant’s supervised release if it “finds by a preponderance of the evidence

that the defendant violated a condition of supervised release.”

(e)(3).

“This standard requires only that the existence of a fact be more probably than its

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nonexistence.” United States v. Padgett,

(4th Cir. 2015) (internal

quotation marks omitted).

Our review of the record leads us to conclude that the district court did not abuse its

discretion in finding by a preponderance of the evidence that Muhammad violated the terms

of his supervised release. With respect to the requirement that Muhammad spend six

months in a halfway house, although Muhammad submitted to the halfway house, he failed

to abide by the rules of the program and was discharged from the halfway house after a

week. Moreover, after leaving the halfway house, Muhammad failed to communicate with

his probation officer or advise his probation officer of where he was staying for over two

months. The district court thus properly found that Muhammad violated both terms of his

supervised release.

Accordingly, we affirm the district court’s revocation judgment. We dispense with

oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately presented in the

materials before this court and argument would not aid in the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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