United States v. David L. Jones, Jr. ( 2023 )


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  • USCA11 Case: 22-13702    Document: 21-1     Date Filed: 01/31/2023   Page: 1 of 4
    [DO NOT PUBLISH]
    In the
    United States Court of Appeals
    For the Eleventh Circuit
    ____________________
    No. 22-13702
    Non-Argument Calendar
    ____________________
    UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
    Plaintiff-Appellee,
    versus
    DAVID L. JONES, JR.,
    Defendant-Appellant.
    ____________________
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the Northern District of Florida
    D.C. Docket No. 4:12-cr-00020-MW-MAF-1
    ____________________
    USCA11 Case: 22-13702     Document: 21-1     Date Filed: 01/31/2023    Page: 2 of 4
    2                      Opinion of the Court                22-13702
    Before NEWSOM, GRANT, and TJOFLAT, Circuit Judges.
    PER CURIAM:
    David Jones, Jr. appeals the revocation of his supervised re-
    lease. See 
    18 U.S.C. § 3583
    (e). On appeal, Jones argues that the
    District Court abused its discretion in revoking his supervised re-
    lease based on its findings that he violated the conditions of his
    supervised release as alleged in Violations 3 and 4 in the probation
    officer’s petition. He also argues that even if he had committed
    those violations, he did not do so willfully.
    In 2012, Jones was charged with two counts involving co-
    caine possession and distribution, 
    21 U.S.C. § 846
    , in the United
    States District Court for the Northern District of Florida. Jones
    pled guilty pursuant to a plea agreement to Count One, which
    was for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than
    five hundred grams of cocaine in violation of 
    21 U.S.C. § 846
    .
    In August 2012, Jones was adjudicated guilty on Count One
    and sentenced to 36 months’ imprisonment, supervised release
    for eight years following the term of imprisonment, and a fine. In
    August 2015, Jones admitted to five violations of his supervised
    release, so the conditions of supervised release were modified,
    and he was confined to home detention for six months. In March
    2018, Jones admitted to seven violations of his supervised release,
    so the conditions were modified a second time and he was again
    confined to home detention, this time for two months. In March
    USCA11 Case: 22-13702     Document: 21-1      Date Filed: 01/31/2023    Page: 3 of 4
    22-13702               Opinion of the Court                        3
    2022, Jones admitted to one violation of his supervised release, so
    the conditions were modified for a third time, requiring comple-
    tion of community service hours.
    Finally, on October 26, 2022, Jones admitted to one viola-
    tion of his supervised release and denied four other alleged viola-
    tions, for which the District Court revoked Jones’s supervised re-
    lease and sentenced him to three months’ imprisonment. Specifi-
    cally, Jones admitted to unlawfully possessing or using a con-
    trolled substance in violation of his supervised release (Violation
    1). Though he denied the allegations, the District Court also
    found that Jones failed to follow instructions of the probation of-
    ficer (Violation 3) and failed to notify the probation officer of any
    change in residence (Violation 4).
    At the revocation hearing, before the Court accepted
    Jones’s admission as to Violation 1 for testing positive for cocaine
    and marijuana use, the Court informed Jones that for that viola-
    tion alone, he faced a maximum penalty of two years in prison
    and a guideline range of five to eleven months’ imprisonment.
    Jones did not object to the Court’s findings of fact or the sentence
    imposed.
    We review a district court’s revocation of supervised re-
    lease for an abuse of discretion. United States v. Cunningham,
    
    607 F.3d 1264
    , 1266 (11th Cir. 2010). A court may revoke a de-
    fendant’s term of supervised release and impose a prison sentence
    when it finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the defend-
    ant violated a condition of his supervised release. Id.; 18 U.S.C.
    USCA11 Case: 22-13702     Document: 21-1      Date Filed: 01/31/2023    Page: 4 of 4
    4                      Opinion of the Court                22-13702
    § 3583(e)(3). The preponderance of the evidence standard re-
    quires the trier of fact to believe that the existence of a fact is
    more probable than its nonexistence. United States v. Almedina,
    
    686 F.3d 1312
    , 1315 (11th Cir. 2012).
    The district court only needs to find one violation of a su-
    pervised release condition to support a revocation. See United
    States v. Vandergrift, 
    754 F.3d 1303
    , 1307 (11th Cir. 2014) (deter-
    mining that a district court did not abuse its discretion in revoking
    the defendant’s supervised release, despite his argument that he
    did not commit two of the five alleged violations of the terms of
    his supervised release, because he pled guilty to the other alleged
    violations). The district court’s decision to revoke a defendant’s
    supervised release is supported adequately by one alleged viola-
    tion, so a possible error in consideration of other allegations is
    harmless. United States v. Brown, 
    656 F.2d 1204
    , 1207 (5th Cir.
    Unit A Sept. 1981).
    Here, the District Court did not abuse its discretion in re-
    voking Jones’s supervised release because he admitted to commit-
    ting Violation 1, which carried a guideline range term of impris-
    onment above his three-month sentence. The District Court only
    needed to find one violation to support the revocation, so any
    possible error in consideration of the other allegations was harm-
    less.
    AFFIRMED.