United States v. Demar Watson ( 2017 )

Case: 16-30677 Document: 00513969242 Page: 1 Date Filed: 04/26/2017
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
United States Court of Appeals
Fifth Circuit
No. 16-30677 FILED
Summary Calendar April 26, 2017
Lyle W. Cayce
Clerk
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff–Appellee,
versus
DEMAR CROZIER WATSON,
Defendant–Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Western District of Louisiana
USDC No. 5:15-CR-37-1
Before JOLLY, SMITH, and GRAVES, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM: *
Demar Watson appeals his sentence for theft concerning programs
receiving federal funds. The district court sentenced him to 38 months of
* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not
be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH
CIR. R. 47.5.4.
Case: 16-30677 Document: 00513969242 Page: 2 Date Filed: 04/26/2017
No. 16-30677
imprisonment, a three-year term of supervised release, and $397,255.68 in
restitution. He contends that the court clearly erred by applying a two-level
enhancement per U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(10(C) for an offense otherwise involving
sophisticated means.
Watson transferred money from his employer’s account to his personal
account, opened a credit account with his supervisor’s personal information,
labeled the transactions as company expenses, and signed a blank company
check to himself. His actions made it more difficult to detect the misappropri-
ation, so the finding that the offense involved sophisticated means was plaus-
ible in light of the record as a whole and not clearly erroneous. See United
States v. Valdez, 726 F.3d 684, 692, 695 (5th Cir. 2013).
The judgment is AFFIRMED.
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