U.S. v. Lewis

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant on remand to 15-year term of incarceration on wire fraud charge stemming from scheme that involved embezzlement of $2 million from 12 individuals, who were between 75 and 92 years old. While Dist. Ct. did not err by refusing to consider defendant’s argument that govt. violated terms of plea agreement during original sentencing hearing, where defendant failed to include said issue in her original appeal, Dist. Ct. erred in failing to acknowledge that it could, in its discretion, resolve said issue, where prior remand had vacated entire sentence. However, any error was harmless, where govt. had not breached plea agreement, since agreement called for govt. to only recommend maximum of 10-year sentence and allowed govt. to comment on presentence report preparer’s recommendation for additional enhancement and to advocate for 4-level vulnerable-victim enhancement, since govt. continually recommended only 10-year sentence. Also, two-level vulnerable-victim enhancement properly applied given advanced age of victim, as well as other specific heath/mental health facts that made victims vulnerable to defendant’s scheme.