United States of America v. Ricardo Cole

United States Court of Appeals
For the Eighth Circuit
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No. 24-3561
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United States of America
lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee
v.
Ricardo Cole
lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant
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Appeal from United States District Court
for the Eastern District of Missouri - St. Louis
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Submitted: September 15, 2025
Filed: September 18, 2025
[Unpublished]
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Before LOKEN, GRUENDER, and ERICKSON, Circuit Judges.
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PER CURIAM.
Ricardo Cole appeals the below-Guidelines sentence the district court1 imposed
after he pleaded guilty to a firearms offense. His counsel has moved for leave to
1The Honorable Henry E. Autrey, United States District Judge for the Eastern
District of Missouri.

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withdraw, and has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967),
challenging the substantive reasonableness of the sentence.
Upon careful review, we conclude that the district court did not impose a
substantively unreasonable sentence. See United States v. Feemster, 572 F.3d 455,
461-62 (8th Cir. 2009) (en banc) (reviewing sentence under deferential abuse-of-
discretion standard; discussing substantive reasonableness); United States v.
McCauley, 715 F.3d 1119, 1127 (8th Cir. 2013) (noting when a district court has
varied below the Guidelines range, it is “nearly inconceivable” that the court abused
its discretion by not varying downward further). In addition, having independently
reviewed the record pursuant to Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75 (1988), we find no
nonfrivolous issues for appeal. Accordingly, we grant counsel leave to withdraw, and
we affirm.
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