United States v. Paull

Jerry Paull (defendant) was a 65-year-old former minister who suffered from Type I diabetes, Meniere’s disease that caused vertigo, coronary artery disease, and osteoporosis. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents became aware of Paull’s online activity involving child pornography and executed a search warrant at his residence. Agents found a garbage can containing 3,700 images and numerous videotapes of child pornography. Paull confessed and entered a conditional plea of guilty to knowing possession of child pornography. The plea agreement stipulated to an offense level of 30, which included enhancements for images of a prepubescent minor, images portraying sadistic/masochistic conduct, use of a computer, and possession of over 600 images. The presentence report recommended additional enhancements for obstruction of justice and a pattern of activity involving the sexual abuse of a minor, resulting in an offense level of 37 and a guideline range of 210 to 262 months’ imprisonment. The court considered but rejected Paull’s arguments for a variance based on his age, poor health, rehabilitation efforts with a sex-addiction group, and history of sexual abuse as a child. The court also considered varying upward based on Paull’s lack of empathy for his child victims and the volume and nature of images Paull possessed. The court imposed a within-guidelines prison sentence of 210 months. On appeal, Paull argued that his sentence was substantively unreasonable because it was greater than necessary to serve the purposes of sentencing set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and the district court had over-emphasized the impact on victims and improperly discounted factors that weighed in favor of a downward variance from the calculated guidelines range.