United States of America v. Donald Sims

Youngstown, Ohio, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with violation of supervised release.

Donald Sims has a history of run-ins with the law. Among his past offenses are two federal convictions for possessing a firearm as a felon. The sentences for both offenses included periods of supervised release, provisions he struggled to honor.

The district court, however,
imposed an 18-month sentence (to run consecutive to Sims’s state sentence)—five months above
the Guidelines range. The upward variance, the district court hoped, would “send the
appropriate message” that “drug trafficking is not going to be condoned . . . nor is a failure to
report to [probation].” Id., PageID 293–95. Such a variance was necessary because prior
leniency, the district court explained, “apparently had no effect” on Sims’s behavior. Id., PageID
294. Sims’s counsel objected “to the upward variance,” but made no other specific objection.
Id., PageID 294. The district court noted the objection but overruled it, leading to Sims’s appeal.

Affirmed