United States v. Wade Loveday

Wade Loveday pleaded guilty to one count of possession of an unregistered firearm, in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (d). The district court departed upward from the Sentencing Guidelines (“the guidelines”) in imposing a sentence of twenty-four months of imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release. Love-day argues on appeal that this departure was both impermissible and unreasonable. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 , and affirm the sentence imposed by the district court.

I

The presentence report details the following facts. In early October 1988, an investigation of one Robert Anderson led to the discovery of three pipe bombs in his home. The most dangerous of these, an incendiary bomb, was found in a “Toys-R-Us” box in Anderson’s bedroom closet. It consisted of a pipe bomb attached to a one-gallon container of gasoline; inside the bomb was a small bottle filled with shrapnel. The other two bombs were made of copper pipe, crimped at both ends. Love-day was implicated in the manufacture of these bombs.

On October 31, 1988, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms executed a search warrant at Loveday’s home in El…