United States of America v. Joshua Matthew Houchins

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 24-7029
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
v.
JOSHUA MATTHEW HOUCHINS,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, at
Raleigh. James C. Dever III, District Judge. (5:20-cr-00245-D-1)
Submitted: March 27, 2025 Decided: June 3, 2025
Before THACKER and BERNER, Circuit Judges, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Joshua Matthew Houchins, Appellant Pro Se. David A. Bragdon, Assistant United States
Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina,
for Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Joshua Matthew Houchins appeals the district court’s order denying his
18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) motions for a sentence reduction pursuant to Amendment 821 to
the Sentencing Guidelines. Upon review of the record, we discern no abuse of the court’s
discretion in the denial of Houchins’ motions. The district court considered the factors
listed in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) and provided an individualized explanation for why it
declined to reduce Houchins’s sentence. See United States v. Martin, 916 F.3d 389, 395
(4th Cir. 2019) (providing standard of review); see also id. at 398 (recognizing that “[t]here
is no right to a sentence reduction under § 3582(c)(2)”). Accordingly, we affirm the district
court’s order solely on the basis of its Section 3553(a) analysis, without countenancing its
noted policy disagreement with Amendment 821, United States v. Houchins, No. 5:20-cr-
00245-D-1 (E.D.N.C. Oct. 30, 2024). 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.
AFFIRMED

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