United States v. Johannes Weber

Johannes Weber (‘Weber”) appeals his jury conviction and sentence for obstruction of justice, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1503 (“ § 1503”). Weber argues (1) that a judicial proceeding was not pending at the time he left a voice mail message threatening to murder a federal district judge; (2) the government did not present sufficient evidence for the jury to find that Weber had the requisite intent to obstruct justice or that his threat bore a sufficient relationship to a pending judicial proceeding; and (3) the district court erred by sentencing Weber under U.S.S.G. § 2J1.2, concerning obstruction of justice, rather than U.S.S.G. § 2A2.4, concerning impeding a federal officer. We have jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

BACKGROUND

On October 4, 1995, Chief United States District Court Judge James K. Singleton (“Judge Singleton”) for the District of Alaska sentenced Weber to thirty-three months incarceration followed by three-years of supervised release for his conviction for wire fraud, in United States v. Weber, A95-0032-CR (JKS) (“Weber I”). As part of Weber’s supervised release, Judge Singleton required him to report to the United States…