United States v. Nicholas Gruner

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________

No. 20-1468 ___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee

v.

Nicholas John Gruner

lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Cedar Rapids ____________

Submitted: August 5, 2020 Filed: August 10, 2020 [Unpublished] ____________

Before LOKEN, GRUENDER, and KELLY, Circuit Judges. ____________

PER CURIAM.

Nicholas Gruner appeals after he pleaded guilty to a controlled substance offense and the district court1 imposed a sentence at the bottom of the advisory

1 The Honorable C.J. Williams, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa.

sentencing guideline range. His counsel has moved for leave to withdraw, and has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), challenging the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.

Having carefully reviewed the record under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard, see Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 41 (2007), we conclude that the district court did not impose a substantively unreasonable sentence. The court properly considered the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a), and there is no indication that the court overlooked a relevant factor, gave significant weight to an improper or irrelevant factor, or committed a clear error of judgment in weighing relevant factors. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455, 461-62 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc); see also United States v. Munz, 780 F.3d 1199, 1200-01 (8th Cir. 2015) (per curiam). Furthermore, we have independently reviewed the record under Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75 (1988), and have found no nonfrivolous issues for appeal.

Accordingly, we grant counsel’s motion to withdraw, and we affirm the judgment. ______________________________

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