United States v. William Trotter ( 2011 )

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION
File Name: 11a0256n.06
No. 10-5096 FILED
Apr 20, 2011
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
LEONARD GREEN, Clerk
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, )
) ON APPEAL FROM THE
Plaintiff-Appellee, ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT
) COURT FOR THE MIDDLE
v. ) DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE
)
WILLIAM AUBREY TROTTER, ) OPINION
)
Defendant-Appellant. )
BEFORE: COLE, STRANCH, Circuit Judges; and ZATKOFF, District Judge.*
COLE, Circuit Judge. Defendant-Appellant William Aubrey Trotter appeals his sentence
of 81 months’ imprisonment for possessing a firearm as a felon, arguing that the sentence is
substantively unreasonable. We AFFIRM.
I. BACKGROUND
On January 9, 2009, a team of local and federal law-enforcement officers were conducting
surveillance on an apartment complex in Nashville where gang-related shootings had recently
occurred, when the officers observed Trotter patting his waistband and overheard him make
statements which led them to believe that Trotter was armed. Trotter left the apartment complex in
the passenger seat of a Saab sedan and the officers followed, eventually pulling the Saab over for a
*
The Honorable Lawrence P. Zatkoff, United States District Court for the Eastern District
of Michigan, sitting by designation.
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USA v. William Aubrey Trotter
traffic violation. In a conversation with one of the officers Trotter volunteered that until recently he
had been incarcerated on a drug conviction and, when questioned further, admitted that he had a
firearm in the front of his waistband. The officer recovered the firearm and searched Trotter outside
the vehicle, finding ammunition and a few small bags of cocaine and marijuana.
On July 13, 2009, Trotter pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm as a felon in
violation of 18 U.S.C.§ 922(g)(1). The district court calculated Trotter’s United States Sentencing
Guidelines (“Guidelines”) range at 92-115 months’ imprisonment, but sentenced him to 81 months,
granting in part his request for a variance based on the harsh conditions of confinement Trotter
endured in the local jail where he was held awaiting trial and the valuable service he provided by
blowing the whistle on those conditions in a related case. The district court declined to vary further
from the Guidelines range based on evidence of abuse Trotter suffered as a child. This appeal
followed.
II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of Review
We review a district court’s sentencing determination for reasonableness under a deferential
abuse-of-discretion standard. United States v. Studabaker, 578 F.3d 423, 430 (6th Cir. 2009) (citing
United States v. Bolds, 511 F.3d 568, 578 (6th Cir. 2007)). Reasonableness includes both procedural
and substantive components. Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 51 (2007). Trotter challenges only
the substantive reasonableness of his sentence.
The district court must impose a sentence that is “sufficient, but not greater than necessary,
to comply with” the factors in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See United States v. Tristan-Madrigal, 601 F.3d
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USA v. William Aubrey Trotter
629, 632 (6th Cir. 2010). “‘A sentence is substantively unreasonable if the district court selects the
sentence arbitrarily, bases the sentence on impermissible factors, fails to consider pertinent § 3553(a)
factors or gives an unreasonable amount of weight to any pertinent factor.’” Id. at 633 (quoting
United States v. Walls, 546 F.3d 728, 736 (6th Cir. 2008) (internal quotation marks and alterations
omitted)). A sentence within the Guidelines range “warrants a presumption of reasonableness.”
United States v. Herrera-Zuniga, 571 F.3d 568, 590 (6th Cir. 2009). Although “[a] sentence outside
the Guidelines carries with it no legal presumption,” United States v. Vowell, 516 F.3d 503, 509 (6th
Cir. 2008) (citing Rita v. United States, 551 U.S. 338, 355 (2007)), a defendant with a below-
Guidelines sentence faces a high burden in establishing that his sentence is unreasonably severe,
United States v. Curry, 536 F.3d 571, 573 (6th Cir. 2008); United States v. Bailey, 264 F. App’x 480,
485 (6th Cir. 2008); cf. United States v. Wright, 332 F. App’x 257, 261 (6th Cir. 2009) (affording
a presumption of reasonableness to a below-Guidelines sentence).
B. Substantive Reasonableness
Trotter urges that his sentence is substantively unreasonable because the district court
declined to vary further downward from the advisory Guidelines range to account for the terrible
abuse Trotter suffered as a child. This argument, though Trotter does not so specify, amounts to a
claim that the district court did not give enough weight to an aspect of the defendant’s history and
characteristics under § 3553(a)(1). See Tristan-Madrigal, 601 F.3d at 632 (“A sentence is
substantively unreasonable if the district court . . . gives an unreasonable amount of weight to any
pertinent [sentencing] factor.”) But the sentencing transcript makes clear that the district court did
not act unreasonably in finding that the mitigated culpability resulting from Trotter’s abusive
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USA v. William Aubrey Trotter
childhood was outweighed by the need to protect the public from the risk that Trotter would return
to a life a crime. That this balance was tipped based on the district court’s assessment of Trotter’s
lengthy criminal history—that is, data evincing a substantial probability that Trotter would
recidivate—underscores the reasonableness of the district court’s sentencing calculus. And Trotter’s
effort to undermine the district court’s reliance on that history by characterizing his past offenses as
non-violent is belied by the descriptions attending his crimes in the Presentence Investigation Report,
which note the presence of firearms incident to many of Trotter’s drug-related offenses.
Finally, we agree with the district court that the abuse Trotter suffered in childhood was
“horrific.” (Sentencing Tr., Dist. Ct. Docket No. 63, at 37.) But the district court’s judgment that
the present effects of Trotter’s past had to give way to the need of the public to be protected from
his propensity to break the law is squarely within its discretion to make.
III. CONCLUSION
For the reasons above, Cole’s sentence is AFFIRMED.
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