UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. King ARTHUR; Bose Ebhamen; Rhonda Fleming, Defendants-Appellants.
No. 09-20877
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit
July 15, 2011.
PER CURIAM:*
Marco Dewayne Smith appeals the 80-month within-guidelines sentence imposed by the district court following his guilty plea conviction for possession with intent to distribute five grams or more of cocaine base. Because Smith objected that the sentence was greater than necessary to achieve the purposes of sentencing, he preserved the issue of the substantive reasonableness of the sentence for appellate review. See United States v. Mondragon-Santiago, 564 F.3d 357, 361 (5th Cir. 2009).
Smith asserts that the presumption of reasonableness should not apply to the sentence because
According to Smith, the district court should have imposed the 60-month mandatory minimum sentence in view of the great disparity between the guidelines ranges for powder cocaine and cocaine base and in view of the passage of the Fair Sentencing Act and the resulting guidelines amendments, even though these were not effective until after his sentencing. He further argues that other mitigating factors warranted a below-guidelines sentence, including his mental health diagnosis as a paranoid schizophrenic and the traumas of his childhood.
The 80-month within-guidelines sentence imposed by the district court was substantively reasonable. The district court considered counsel‘s arguments for a lesser sentence, as well as Smith‘s statements at sentencing, but ultimately determined that an 80-month within-guidelines sentence was reasonable based on its consideration of the guidelines and the
AFFIRMED.
PER CURIAM