United States v. Lemont D. Gross

Appellant Lemont D. Gross (“Gross”) appeals the sentence imposed by the district court under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines (“guidelines”) Level 11, Category V, of 24 months’ imprisonment for one count of use of a counterfeit access device, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029 (a)(1). Gross argues that the court should have given him a Category III rather than Category V rating for his criminal history, which would have placed him in the 12 to 18 rather than the 24 to 30 month sentencing range under the guidelines. He contends that this error was the result of the failure of the district court to find that three of his prior convictions were “related” under the Sentencing Guidelines § 4A1.2(a)(2), as defined by Application Note 3.

This panel has jurisdiction to review a sentence imposed as a final judgment in a criminal case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . The appeal was timely filed pursuant to Fed.R.App.P. 4(b). We find that the trial court properly applied the guidelines and we affirm the sentence imposed below.

I.

On November 3,1988, Gross was indicted on three counts of credit card fraud: Count I alleged that Gross attempted to use a counterfeit access device in violation of…