- Case Type:
- Business
- Case Status:
- Affirmed
- Citation:
- 24-124 (9th Circuit, Sep 03,2025) Published
- Tag(s):
-
- Ruling:
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the sentence imposed by the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (DC) on Douglas Eligha Taylor (DET) upon the revocation of his supervised release, as the DC committed no procedural error in considering, as precedent allows, DET's violation of criminal law underlying the supervised release violation in evaluating DET's criminal history, risk of recidivism, and breach of the court’s trust, assessed an upward variance justified by DET's personal history and attributes, and did not rest on clearly erroneous facts.
- Procedural context:
- Upon DET's release from a state carceral institution in November 2023, he was transferred to federal custody. Previously, the United States Probation Office (Probation) had filed a petition for revocation of supervised release, alleging that DET's criminal conduct in August 2008 had violated the conditions of his supervised release. In December 2023, Probation amended this petition. Now, given DET's criminal history, Probation calculated a revocation imprisonment range of 18–24 months. DET admitted all allegations in the amended petition; the DC accepted these admissions. In February 2024, upon revoking DET's supervised release, the DC sentenced him to an above guidelines sentence of 60 months of imprisonment, followed by 24 months of supervised release. DET timely appealed.
- Facts:
- In October 1995, DET robbed four banks across Los Angeles (underlying criminal offense) and pleaded guilty to five counts. In April 1996, the DC sentenced him to 147 months of imprisonment for the underlying criminal offense and further imposed a five-year term of supervised release for the underlying criminal offense, subject to sundry conditions. In April 2007, DET was released from prison, and his term of supervised release began. A little bit over one year later, in August 2008, DET used a handgun to rob a bank. For this offense, DET was prosecuted and convicted in California state court, resulting in a sentence of 17 years of imprisonment in state custody. While in custody, DET stabbed another inmate with a knife and received four years of imprisonment in state custody for charges arising out of this stabbing, a term set to run consecutively with his existing 17-year sentence. From 2016 to 2023, DET was cited for 17 rules violations while in state custody, some of which involved violence. In November 2023, DET completed his state term of imprisonment and was transferred to federal custody.
- Judge(s):
- Sandra S. Ikuta; Ryan D. Nelson; and Kenneth K. Lee
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