United States of America v. Howard Alli Parker, a/k/a Poppa

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 25-4284
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
HOWARD ALLI PARKER, a/k/a Poppa,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at
Columbia. Sherri A. Lydon, District Judge. (3:23-cr-00925-SAL-2)
Submitted: May 21, 2026 Decided: May 26, 2026
Before AGEE and THACKER, Circuit Judges, and TRAXLER, Senior Circuit Judge.
Dismissed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
ON BRIEF: Derek Alan Shoemake, CONNELL LAW FIRM, LLC, Lugoff, South
Carolina, for Appellant. Elle E. Klein, Assistant United States Attorney, Frederick Michael
O’Mara, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES
ATTORNEY, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
In February 2024, Howard Alli Parker pled guilty to multiple firearms offenses,
including being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition in and affecting
commerce and aiding and abetting, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(8),
924(e). During a sentencing hearing in June 2024, the district court sentenced Parker to 60
months’ imprisonment, revoked Parker’s supervised release, and imposed a 40-month
sentence for the supervised release violations, to run consecutive to the sentence imposed
for the firearms offenses. The criminal judgment was entered on Jun 20, 2024. Nearly a
year later, on May 16, 2025, Parker filed a pro se notice of appeal from the criminal
judgment. See Houston v. Lack, 487 U.S. 266, 276 (1988). The Government has moved
to dismiss the appeal as untimely.
In criminal cases, the defendant must file the notice of appeal within 14 days after
the entry of judgment. Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(1)(A). With or without a motion, upon a
showing of excusable neglect or good cause, the district court may grant an extension of
up to 30 days to file a notice of appeal. Fed. R. App. P. 4(b)(4). Although the appeal
period in a criminal case is not a jurisdictional provision, but rather a claim-processing rule,
United States v. Urutyan, 564 F.3d 679, 685 (4th Cir. 2009), “[w]hen the Government
promptly invokes the rule in response to a late-filed criminal appeal, we must dismiss,”
United States v. Oliver, 878 F.3d 120, 123 (4th Cir. 2017).
As indicated, Parker noted his appeal nearly a year after the district court entered
the criminal judgment, well beyond both the 14-day appeal period and the 30-day
excusable neglect period. Because Parker failed to file a timely notice of appeal or to

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obtain an extension of the appeal period, and since the Government has promptly invoked
the appeal’s untimeliness, see 4th Cir. R. 27(f)(2), we grant the Government’s motion and
dismiss Parker’s appeal. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would
not aid the decisional process.
DISMISSED

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