United States v. Lincoln

MEMORANDUM ***

Defendant-Appellant John Kalani Lincoln appeals the district court’s decision to *613 revoke his supervised release and to sentence him to 60 months imprisonment. We affirm.

The district court did not abuse its discretion by revoking Lincoln’s supervised release and sentencing Lincoln to 60 months after Lincoln admitted to violating conditions of supervised release. United States Sentencing Guidelines § 7B1.4 recommends a sentence of 6 to 12 months for a revocation of supervised release. However, § 7B1.4 is a non-binding Policy Statement recommendation. The district court was authorized under 18 U.S.C. § 3583 (b)(1) to sentence Lincoln to up to 60 months because some of his underlying convictions were Class A felonies. See United States v. Tadeo, 222 F.3d 623, 626 (9th Cir.2000) (holding that “merely advisory policy statements” may be “freely rejected by a district court without abusing its discretion, if the sentence actually imposed is within the statutory maximum.”). We also reject the argument that the 60-month sentence for supervised release violations imposed in 2004 somehow breached the original plea agreement from 1994. The plea agreement placed no limits…