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Court upholds long sentence for man who trafficked minor for sex
ANNIE YAMSON
Special to the Legal News
Published: June 29, 2015
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a 224-month prison sentence for a sex trafficker.
Taurus Devault pleaded guilty in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio to conspiring to use a facility in interstate commerce to promote prostitution and knowingly recruiting, enticing, or transporting a minor to engage in a commercial sex act.
His total offense level of 36 and a criminal history category of five combined for a guidelines sentencing range of 292 to 365 months of imprisonment.
The district court varied downward and imposed 224 months.
In his appeal to the 6th Circuit court, Devault argued that his sentence produced an unwarranted disparity between his sentence and that of his codefendant, Duane Hill, who received a 200-month period of imprisonment.
“Because we accord within-guidelines sentences a rebuttable presumption of reasonableness, Devault faces an even more demanding burden in challenging the length of his below-guidelines sentence,” Judge Deborah Cook wrote on behalf of the reviewing court. “He fails to carry that burden here.”
Case summary states that, in July 2012, federal task-force officers responded to a post on backpage.com which advertised the sexual services of a 16-year-old girl and another woman.
Devault drove the females and Hill to an arranged meeting at a Toledo motel.
Officers took the women into custody after they agreed to exchange sex for money and, though Devault and Hill attempted to flee, they were both eventually apprehended and arrested.
Devault claimed he played a minor role in the scheme, therefore he should not have received a higher sentence but the district court found it “far more likely that (he) was an active participant in the activities that Hill was helping to orchestrate.”
“Devault also had a more extensive criminal history than his codefendant and submitted a forged document to the court in an attempt to shift all responsibility to Hill,” Cook wrote. “Under the circumstances, Devault’s longer sentence is reasonable.”
Devault proceeded to argue that his personal characteristics warranted a larger downward variance.
He pointed to his largely non-violent criminal history and the fact that he obtained a GED despite his untreated substance abuse issues.
“But he fails to explain why those factors required the district court to impose a lighter sentence than 224 months’ imprisonment,” Cook wrote. “Moreover, the district court accounted for Devault’s unique circumstances at sentencing — specifically the fact that 18 of his 14 criminal history points stemmed from convictions for driving without a license or with a suspended license — and lowered his criminal category from six to five when calculating his guidelines sentence range.”
Ultimately, the court of appeals held that the district court imposed a sentence that was well below Devault’s guidelines range, “notwithstanding Devault’s serious crime and unwillingness to accept responsibility.”
Finding no abuse of discretion, the 6th Circuit court affirmed the judgment of the district court with Judges Karen Moore and Avern Cohn, who sat by designation, concurring.
The case is cited United States v. Devault, Case no. 14-3895.
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