United States v. Victor Alvaro-Reyes

PER CURIAM. Victor Avaro-Reyes appeals the 87-month sentence the district court 1 imposed after he pleaded guilty to a drug conspiracy, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. In a brief filed under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967), counsel argues that Avaro-Reyes’s sentence is excessive and unreasonable. To the extent counsel is raising an Eighth Amendment challenge to AvaroReyes’s sentence, we conclude that the argument fails. See United States v. Collins, 340 F.3d 672, 679 (8th Cir.2003) (Eighth Amendment forbids only extreme sentences that are grossly disproportionate to crime); cf. id. at 676, 679-80 (imposition of mandatory life sentence for conspiring to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine was not cruel and unusual punishment under Eighth Amendment); United States v. Jones, 2 F.3d 827, 828-29 (8th Cir.1993) (finding 151-month sentence for conspiring to distribute phencyclidine not “excessive”). We further find that Avaro-Reyes’s sentence — which was imposed at the bottom of the Guidelines range, and well below the mandatory statutory minimum — is not unreasonable. See United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 765-67, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005) (appellate courts should review post-Booker sentences for unreasonableness); United States v. Lincoln, 413 F.3d 716, 717-18 (8th Cir.) (sentence within Guidelines range is presumptively reasonable, and de *450 fendant must rebut presumption of reasonableness), cer t. denied, — U.S. -, 126 S.Ct. 840, — L.Ed.2d - (2005). Having reviewed the record independently under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 80, 109 S.Ct. 346, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988), we have found no nonfrivolous issues. Accordingly, we affirm. Footnotes [1] The Honorable Warren K. Urbom, United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska.