United States v. Hezekiah Williams, 687 F. App'x 896

Williams, age 61, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting attempted bank fraud (18 U.S.C. §§ 1344(2), 2), aggravated identity theft (18 U.S.C. §§ 1028A(a)(1), 2), and possession of counterfeit securities (18 U.S.C. §§ 513(a), 2).
The district court imposed a 120-month total sentence, above the Guidelines range but below the statutory maximum.
Williams has a criminal history spanning ~40 years beginning at age 17, with repeated convictions for forgery and related fraud offenses.
The presentence report documented numerous, recurring fraud convictions; the district court emphasized the frequency and recidivism in imposing a variance for deterrence and public protection.
Williams challenged the sentence as procedurally and substantively unreasonable on appeal, arguing the court failed to give adequate weight to the Guidelines range.
The Eleventh Circuit reviewed for abuse of discretion and affirmed the sentence.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
Procedural reasonableness of the variance	Williams: court failed to give the advisory Guidelines meaningful weight, effectively ignoring them	Government: district court thoroughly considered Guidelines and § 3553(a) factors and explained why Guidelines were inadequate	Affirmed — no procedural error; court adequately considered Guidelines and explained deviation
Substantive reasonableness of the variance	Williams: the above-Guidelines sentence was substantively unreasonable given the low-level nature of the offenses	Government: court permissibly emphasized long-term, repetitive fraud and need for deterrence; variance justified and below statutory max	Affirmed — variance was supported by compelling justification and did not amount to abuse of discretion

United States v. Wayerski, 624 F.3d 1342 (11th Cir. 2010) (factors for procedural reasonableness review)
United States v. De La Cruz Suarez, 601 F.3d 1202 (11th Cir. 2010) (defendant bears burden to show procedural unreasonableness)
United States v. Irey, 612 F.3d 1160 (11th Cir. 2010) (en banc) (standards for reasonableness and weight required for Guidelines; degree of variance justification)
United States v. Williams, 526 F.3d 1312 (11th Cir. 2008) (permitting heavy emphasis on criminal history for sentencing)
United States v. Gonzalez, 550 F.3d 1319 (11th Cir. 2008) (below-statutory-maximum sentence can indicate reasonableness)
United States v. Rosales-Bruno, 789 F.3d 1249 (11th Cir. 2015) (upholding substantial variances above Guidelines)
United States v. Early, 686 F.3d 1219 (11th Cir. 2012) (upholding large upward variance)
Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007) (abuse-of-discretion standard for reviewing sentences)