United States v. Konrad Swimmer ( 2018 )


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  •                  United States Court of Appeals
    For the Eighth Circuit
    ___________________________
    No. 17-3235
    ___________________________
    United States of America
    lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee
    v.
    Konrad Swimmer
    lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant
    ____________
    Appeal from United States District Court
    for the District of South Dakota - Rapid City
    ____________
    Submitted: October 15, 2018
    Filed: December 11, 2018
    [Unpublished]
    ____________
    Before SHEPHERD, KELLY, and STRAS, Circuit Judges.
    ____________
    PER CURIAM.
    Konrad Swimmer pleaded guilty to one count of failure to pay legal child
    support obligations in violation of 
    18 U.S.C. § 228
    (a)(3). On April 6, 2012, he was
    sentenced to five years of unsupervised probation and ordered to pay restitution.
    Swimmer repeatedly failed to pay restitution and failed to remain current with his
    child support payments. As a result, his unsupervised probation was reviewed and
    reinstated twice; on the third occasion it was revoked and replaced with a five-year
    term of supervised probation. Swimmer’s supervised probation was revoked and
    reinstated shortly thereafter for failure to maintain contact with his probation officer
    and he was ordered to reside at a halfway house for two months. In June 2017, the
    probation office filed its fifth petition to revoke Swimmer’s probation, and Swimmer
    admitted to the violation of failing to timely notify his probation officer of his change
    in residence. The advisory Guidelines range for this violation was 7 to 13 months’
    imprisonment. The district court1 revoked Swimmer’s probation and sentenced him
    to 21 months’ imprisonment, followed by one year of supervised release. Swimmer
    appeals, arguing the sentence was substantively unreasonable.
    We review the substantive reasonableness of the district court’s revocation
    sentence under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard, United States v. McGhee,
    
    869 F.3d 703
    , 706 (8th Cir. 2017) (per curiam), applying “the same ‘reasonableness’
    standard that applies to initial sentencing proceedings,” United States v. Merrival, 
    521 F.3d 889
    , 890 (8th Cir. 2008). Although Swimmer’s sentence exceeds the Guidelines
    range for the probation violation, it is within the range for his original offense (15 to
    21 months). We conclude that the district court considered all of the 
    18 U.S.C. § 3553
    (a) factors and the sentence is substantively reasonable. At the revocation
    hearing, the district court noted that Swimmer was given “several chances” to adhere
    to the terms of his probation but had repeatedly failed to do so. Given Swimmer’s
    recidivism and history with probation, it was not an abuse of discretion to conclude
    that a 21-month period of incarceration was sufficient but not greater than necessary
    to achieve the goals of sentencing.
    The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
    ______________________________
    1
    The Honorable Karen E. Schreier, United States District Judge for the District
    of South Dakota.
    -2-
    

Document Info

Docket Number: 17-3235

Filed Date: 12/11/2018

Precedential Status: Non-Precedential

Modified Date: 4/17/2021