11th Circuit poised to order resentencing of Grindr attacker

(CN) — An 11th Circuit panel appeared to side with a government attorney Wednesday who argued a Florida federal judge struck an illegal sentencing bargain with a man convicted of 17 counts of violence in a spree of Miami robberies, carjackings and kidnappings targeting gay men.

Stevenson Charles received an illegal sentence package that included a term of supervised release 10 years above the five-year statutory maximum and must be resentenced, assistant U.S. attorney Jason Wu told a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court.

Charles pleaded guilty to carjacking, kidnapping, bank robbery and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and was sentenced in April 2023 to 45 years in prison to be followed by 15 years of supervised release. The offenses came with a guidelines range of life imprisonment and a statutory maximum of five years of supervised release.

Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Huck granted Charles a shorter prison term based his willingness to accept the illegally long supervision term, Wu said.

“If you exchange illegal drugs for legal money the whole deal is corrupt, right? It doesn’t matter that one half of the deal involved a legal concept or a legal term. That’s kind of what happened here,” Wu said. “There was an illegal part of the sentence exchanged for what is an independently lawful term of imprisonment.”

Wu argued the mistake “infected” the entire sentence.

“The only way to fix it is to start over with a full de novo resentencing,” the attorney said.

Arguing on behalf of Charles, Florida assistant federal public defender Bernardo Lopez urged the panel to reject the government’s stance. Lopez said the government is “seeking a second bite at the apple” by making an argument already rejected by the lower court.

Chief U.S. Circuit Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, appeared to disagree. “As I understand their argument it’s that they want the right to ask the district court to enter a legal sentence. It entered a sentence that’s illegal and you can’t unpackage it.”

Charles’ crime spree began in October 2022 when he robbed and kidnapped or carjacked five victims in Miami after connecting with many of them using the dating app Grindr. As part of his guilty plea, Charles admitted to targeting gay men by inviting them to his home or another location for sex and pulling a gun on them when they arrived.

Charles forced several victims to withdraw money from bank ATMs and made one to drive him to stores where he bought items with the victim’s credit card. Charles told victims he hated gay people, believed they should be punished and that he would kill everyone like the victims.

In one instance, Charles targeted a gay victim, kidnapped him and shot him in the head, back and shoulder. The victim survived but suffered permanent injuries from the attack.

“I don’t think this court should step in and assist the government in their failure to properly raise the issue before the court,” Lopez said, adding that the government had not argued that the lower court abused its discretion by imposing the 45-year imprisonment term.

The argument received a cold reception from the panel.

“It seems to me there was an error. I don’t think you can dispute it,” U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Luck, an appointee of Donald Trump, said. “You’re right that we haven’t had a situation where we have remanded the entire sentence but we certainly have the authority to do so, don’t we?”

Pryor agreed, asking, “How is it that we don’t have the authority in this case to send this back when it plainly has an illegal component?”

Wu said Lopez was faulting the government for failing to preserve a claim it is not raising.

“All we want is for the court to decide the claim… that the package is illegal because half of it is above the statutory maximum,” Wu said. “The district judge will have a fair opportunity to reconsider now knowing that there is a limit, a five-year cap on the supervised release.”

Charles was separately sentenced in Georgia state court to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole in December following his guilty plea to kidnapping, armed robbery, aggravated assault, false imprisonment and aggravated sodomy.

Those charges were related to the kidnapping and robbery of a Georgia couple in November 2022 after one of the victims met Charles through the dating app Scruff. Charles sexually assaulted one of the victims at gunpoint, took both men’s wedding rings and forced them to purchase gift cards for him.

Wednesday’s panel was rounded out by U.S. Circuit Judge Britt Grant, a Trump appointee. The panel did not signal when it will issue a decision in the appeal.

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