United States v. Maurice Wilkins
Opinion
Defendant Maurice Wilkins committed multiple violations of his supervised release, including an assault on his wife. The district court 1 revoked Wilkins's supervised release and sentenced him to twelve months' imprisonment with three years' supervised release. As a condition of his supervised release, the district court prohibited Wilkins from contacting his wife, either directly or indirectly, during the full term of his supervision. Wilkins appeals both the sentence and the no-contact condition, arguing that they are substantively unreasonable. We affirm.
I. Background
Wilkins has a long criminal history. In 1994, he pled guilty to aggravated vehicle hijacking with a dangerous weapon and was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment. In 2003, he pled guilty to disorderly conduct, possession of a controlled substance, and harassment, and was fined. The basis for the harassment charge was an incident in which Wilkins threatened to kill his wife and then drove to her apartment and kicked her door down. In 2004, Wilkins pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base. He was sentenced to 210 months' imprisonment with five years' supervised release. Due to retroactive Guideline amendments, Wilkins's sentence was eventually reduced in 2011 to 135 months' imprisonment.
Wilkins's first term of supervised release began in April 2014. In the span of two years, Wilkins committed numerous violations of his supervised release. One of those violations involved Wilkins slapping his son and grabbing his wife's face and jaw. The violations resulted in Wilkins re-appearing before the district court five times. The first four times Wilkins returned to court, the district court responded by modifying the terms of his release. The fifth time, however, the district court revoked his supervised release and sentenced him to nine months' imprisonment with three years' supervised release. This Court affirmed that sentence on May 2, 2017.
The present case stems from Wilkins's second term of supervised release, which began in November 2016. Just five months after Wilkins started his second term of supervised release, a probation officer filed for revocation, alleging that Wilkins: (1) failed to submit a required urine sample; (2) submitted a diluted urine sample; and (3) assaulted his wife by hitting her. During the sentencing hearing, Wilkins admitted these violations. All parties agreed that the appropriate Guidelines range was six to twelve months' imprisonment. The district court sentenced Wilkins to twelve months' imprisonment with three years' supervised release. It also prohibited Wilkins from contacting his wife during his supervised release.
II. Standard of Review
We review revocation sentences "under the same 'reasonableness' standard that applies to initial sentencing proceedings."
United States v. Merrival
,
United States v. Petreikis
,
We also review the "imposition of special conditions of supervised release for abuse of discretion."
United States v. Hobbs
,
III. Analysis
We find that Wilkins's twelve-month revocation sentence was substantively reasonable. Wilkins argues that the district court inappropriately weighed the § 3553(a) factors by ignoring the progress he had made while on supervised release. District courts, however, are given "wide latitude" in weighing the factors.
Farmer
,
We also find that Wilkins's no-contact condition was substantively reasonable. The district court imposed the no-contact condition specifically to protect Wilkins's wife. During the sentencing hearing, it recounted Wilkins's history of aggression, including the three instances in which Wilkins was violent toward his wife. The district court concluded that Wilkins "ha[s] a very serious problem with aggression" and that he was "a risk to harm other people, particularly [his] wife." Recognizing the gravity of the condition, the district court told Wilkins that "[t]here also would be a mechanism, if [he] g[o]t out of prison and stabilize[d] [him]self and stop[ped] abusing [his wife]," whereby it was "possible that [the no-contact condition] could be lifted." It also ordered the probation office to work with Wilkins and his wife "to try to set up a method by which the child or children ... [could] be exchanged for visitation purposes." Thus, the district court, after making an individualized inquiry into the facts, crafted a condition that was reasonably related to the sentencing factors yet involved no greater deprivation of liberty than was reasonably necessary.
See
Deatherage
,
The Honorable Linda R. Reade, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Maurice WILKINS, Also Known as Face, Defendant - Appellant.
- Cited By
- 36 cases
- Status
- Published