Douglas Wilmurth was a convicted felon who engaged in the distribution of methamphetamine and possession of firearms. After federal agents seized over 70 kilograms of drugs and six firearms from his home, Wilmurth was indicted on three federal counts: unlawful possession of firearms, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, and possession of an unregistered short-barrel shotgun. While released on bond, Wilmurth absconded and removed his monitoring equipment, leading to his arrest for breaking and entering. He was subsequently sentenced in state court for that conduct and held in the Michigan Department of Corrections. When he was returned to federal custody via a writ of habeas corpus, the district court sentenced him to a total of 180 to 188 months of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. The district court ordered the federal sentence to run consecutively to his undischarged state imprisonment and imposed a condition of supervised release requiring Wilmurth to submit to searches of his person, property, and premises, including his office. Wilmurth appealed, arguing that the consecutive sentence violated the Sentencing Guidelines and that the written judgment differed from the oral pronouncement regarding the search conditions.
The Sixth Circuit applied the plain error standard because Wilmurth failed to object to the sentencing procedures below. First, regarding the consecutive sentence, Wilmurth argued that U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(b) required the court to run the sentences concurrently because his state offense was relevant conduct to the federal charges. The court rejected this, noting that the presentence report only found his conduct of absconding and breaking and entering to be obstruction of justice, not relevant conduct to the underlying drug and firearms offenses. The state conviction for breaking and entering was a separate criminal episode that did not constitute relevant conduct under the Guidelines. Second, the court addressed the argument that the district court failed to explain its decision under § 5G1.3(d). The court held that a district court need not recite the specific Guidelines factors or Application Note 4(A) verbatim; it is sufficient if the rationale is generally clear from the record. Here, the district court explicitly acknowledged the undischarged state terms and considered the § 3553(a) factors, which was sufficient. Regarding the discrepancy claim, the court reviewed the oral and written sentences de novo. Wilmurth argued the written judgment included his 'office' in the search condition while the oral order referred to 'premises where he works.' The court found these substantially identical, reasoning that a search of an office is a search of a premise where one works. The court also found no discrepancy in the consecutive sentence language, as Wilmurth conceded his only undischarged sentences were within the Michigan Department of Corrections, making the terms 'undischarged terms of imprisonment' and 'undischarged terms of imprisonment…within the jurisdiction of the Michigan Department of Corrections' functionally the same.
The decision affirms the district court's judgment, meaning Wilmurth must serve his federal sentence consecutively to his state time. It clarifies that federal courts are not required to explicitly recite Sentencing Guidelines factors when imposing consecutive sentences if the rationale is evident from the record. Additionally, the ruling reinforces that minor linguistic variations between oral and written sentencing orders do not constitute reversible discrepancies if the legal effect is substantially identical. The case is remanded with instructions to affirm, leaving no open questions on the specific issues raised.
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