United States of America v. Tyrone Grailford

Columbia, South Carolina, criminal defense lawyer represented the Defendant charged with felony possession of a firearm.

A Guidelines error is harmless—and, thus, does not require vacatur—if “(1) the
district court would have reached the same result even if it had decided the Guidelines issue the other way, and (2) the sentence would be reasonable even if the Guidelines issue had been decided in the defendant’s favor.” United States v. Mills, 917 F.3d 324, 330 (4th Cir. 2019) (citation modified); see United States v. McDonald, 850 F.3d 640, 643 (4th Cir. 2017) (discussing assumed error harmlessness inquiry). Here, the district court explicitly stated that, even if it had misapplied the Guidelines, a 77-month upward variance sentence was warranted under the pertinent 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors. Because “the district court made it abundantly clear that it would have imposed the same sentence . . . regardless of the advice of the Guidelines,” United States v. Gomez-Jimenez, 750 F.3d 370, 382 (4th Cir. 2014), we conclude that the first prong of the assumed error harmlessness inquiry is satisfied.

The Defendant was found guilty and was sentenced to 77 months in prison.