USCA4 Appeal: 23-4237 Doc: 66 Filed: 01/15/2025 Pg: 1 of 5

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-4237

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

JARVIS ANTONIO COLEMAN-FULLER,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. Deborah K. Chasanow, Senior District Judge. (1:20-cr-00038-DKC-7)

Submitted: January 10, 2025 Decided: January 15, 2025

Before HARRIS and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges, and TRAXLER, Senior Circuit Judge.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

ON BRIEF: Mirriam Z. Seddiq, SEDDIQ LAW FIRM, Rockville, Maryland, for Appellant. Erek L. Barron, United States Attorney, Adeyemi O. Adenrele, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

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PER CURIAM:

Jarvis Antonio Coleman-Fuller appeals the criminal judgment sentencing him to

156 months’ imprisonment following his convictions by a jury of conspiracy to distribute

and to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances, including heroin and fentanyl,

in violation of

(b)(1)(B)(i), (vi), 846; possession with intent to distribute

40 grams or more of fentanyl and a quantity of heroin, in violation of

(a)(1),

(b)(1)(B)(vi), (C); two counts of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, in

violation of

(g)(1); possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug

trafficking crime, in violation of

(c)(1)(A)(i); and possession of body armor

by a violent felon, in violation of

(a)(35), 924(a)(7), 931(a)(1). For the

following reasons, we affirm.

Coleman-Fuller argues first that the district court erred in allowing the admission at

trial of testimony about his prior incarceration, claiming that this testimony was unfairly

prejudicial under Fed. R. Evid. 403.

“Rule 403 states that a district ‘court may exclude relevant evidence if its probative

value is substantially outweighed by a danger of . . . unfair prejudice . . . or needlessly

presenting cumulative evidence.’” United States v. Tillmon,

(4th Cir.

2019) (quoting Fed. R. Evid. 403). “[W]hen considering whether evidence is unfairly

prejudicial, damage to a defendant’s case is not a basis for excluding probative evidence

because evidence that is highly probative invariably will be prejudicial to the defense.”

(internal quotation marks omitted). “Instead, unfair prejudice speaks to the capacity of

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some concededly relevant evidence to lure the factfinder into declaring guilt on a ground

different from proof specific to the offense charged.”

(cleaned up).

We review the district court’s evidentiary ruling under the deferential abuse of

discretion standard. Burgess v. Goldstein,

(4th Cir. 2021) (“We will

overturn an evidentiary ruling only if it is arbitrary and irrational.”) We have reviewed the

record on appeal, and conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing

testimony of Coleman-Fuller’s prior incarceration. The testimony was brief and limited,

and especially in light of Coleman-Fuller’s stipulation to his felon status, its admission was

not otherwise unfairly prejudicial. We accordingly affirm Coleman-Fuller’s conviction.

Coleman-Fuller also challenges his sentence, asserting that the district court

committed two procedural errors in the calculation of his Sentencing Guidelines range. “In

assessing whether a district court properly calculated the Guidelines range, including its

application of any sentencing enhancements, we review the district court’s legal

conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error.” United States v. Fluker,

(4th Cir. 2018) (cleaned up).

Coleman-Fuller first contends that the court should not have included drug amounts

seized from a coconspirator’s home in determining his base offense level because these

amounts were not reasonably foreseeable to him. “[I]n order to attribute to a defendant

for sentencing purposes the acts of others in jointly-undertaken criminal activity, those acts

must have been within the scope of the defendant’s agreement and must have been

reasonably foreseeable to the defendant.” United States v. Flores-Alvarado,

(4th Cir. 2015) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, the district court carefully

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considered Coleman-Fuller’s argument and determined that the drug amounts seized from

the home of his coconspirator were reasonably foreseeable to him. We discern no clear

error in that finding. Accordingly, those drug amounts were properly used to calculate

Coleman-Fuller’s advisory Guidelines range.

Second, Coleman-Fuller argues that the court erroneously designated his prior

Maryland first-degree assault conviction as a crime of violence in the determination of his

base offense level. As the Government correctly notes, we did not determine that Maryland

first-degree assault no longer qualified as a crime of violence until several months after

Coleman-Fuller’s sentencing. See United States v. Redd,

, 173 (4th Cir. 2023).

However, contrary to the Government’s assertion on appeal, such intervening case law

applies here on direct review. See Griffith v. Kentucky,

(1987).

Accordingly, the court’s designation of Coleman-Fuller’s Maryland first-degree assault

conviction as a crime of violence amounts to procedural error.

However, we conclude that this error is harmless. “It is well established that we

will not vacate a sentence if we determine that the district court’s improper calculation of

the Guidelines advisory sentencing range [is] harmless.” United States v. Mills,

(4th Cir. 2019).

[A] Guidelines error is harmless and does not warrant vacating the defendant’s sentence if the record shows that (1) the district court would have reached the same result even if it had decided the Guidelines issue the other way, and (2) the sentence would be [substantively] reasonable even if the Guidelines issue had been decided in the defendant’s favor.

(cleaned up). Here, the improper crime-of-violence designation did not affect Coleman-

Fuller’s combined offense level, which means the district court would have considered the

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same Guidelines sentencing range regardless of the error. And the district court’s

comments during the sentencing hearing make clear that it would have imposed the same

sentence even absent the application of the base offense level that relied on the Maryland

first-degree assault conviction as a crime of violence. Therefore, the first requirement of

the harmless error analysis has been met.

Furthermore, we are satisfied that Coleman-Fuller’s sentence is substantively

reasonable. Without the challenged crime of violence designation, Coleman-Fuller’s

Guidelines range would have remained the same. Moreover, the district court thoroughly

explained why the chosen sentence (which represented a significant downward variance

from the advisory Guidelines range) was appropriate based on the

(a)

factors and the parties’ arguments, fashioning a sentence based on Coleman-Fuller’s role

in the offense, criminal history, support system, rehabilitation efforts, and limited

acceptance of responsibility. Any error in calculating the Guidelines range is thus

harmless.

Accordingly, we affirm the criminal 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 the decisional process.

AFFIRMED

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