United States v. Lovato

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's sentence of 180 months in prison after he was convicted of sexual abuse of a minor. The court held that the district court permissibly accounted for the other occasions of abuse by departing upward under USSG 5K2.21; the extent of abuse was an aggravating circumstance that the adjustment under USSG 4B1.5(b) for a shorter pattern did not fully address; and the sentence was substantively reasonable where there was no abuse of discretion in the district court's determination that there existed aggravating circumstances that were not adequately taken into account by a shorter term of imprisonment, and that defendant deserved a term at the statutory maximum. View "United States v. Lovato" on Justia Law