United States v. Tyrone Kelly

── United States v. Tyrone Kelly ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Date: May 22, 2026 Category: General USCA4 Appeal: 23-6704 Doc: 128 Filed: 05/22/2026 Pg: 1 of 7 UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 23-4353 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. TYRONE KELLY, Defendant - Appellant. No. 23-6704 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. TYRONE KELLY, Defendant - Appellant. Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, at Columbia. Joseph F. Anderson, Jr., Senior District Judge. (3:21-cr-00522-JFA-7) Submitted: April 30, 2026 Decided: May 22, 2026 USCA4 Appeal: 23-6704 Doc: 128 Filed: 05/22/2026 Pg: 2 of 7 Before AGEE and HARRIS, Circuit Judges, and KEENAN, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. ON BRIEF: Howard W. Anderson III, Pendleton, South Carolina, for Appellant. Bryan P. Stirling, United States Attorney, Andrea Gwen Hoffman, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Charleston, South Carolina, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. 2 USCA4 Appeal: 23-6704 Doc: 128 Filed: 05/22/2026 Pg: 3 of 7 PER CURIAM: Tyrone Kelly pleaded guilty, pursuant to a written plea agreement, to two counts of using a telephone to facilitate the commission of a felony under the Controlled Substances Act, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). The district court sentenced Kelly to 45 months’ imprisonment for each conviction and ordered the sentences to run consecutively. Kelly filed a pro se motion to reconsider his sentence and asserted that the maximum sentence that the district court could have imposed was 48 months. The district court denied the motion. Kelly appealed the criminal judgment (No. 23-4353) and the order denying his motion to reconsider his sentence (No. 23-6704), and this court consolidated the appeals. On appeal, Kelly’s counsel filed a brief pursuant to Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738 (1967), stating that there were no meritorious grounds for appeal but questioning whether the district court committed an error when grouping the offenses under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 3D1.1 (2021). Kelly filed a pro se supplemental brief and more than 50 supplements. Kelly also filed a motion to amend his pro se supplemental brief (ECF No. 45), 1 which we now grant. Upon conducting our Anders review of the record, we identified two nonfrivolous appellate issues, that is, (1) Whether under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(1)(G), Kelly understood the nature of each charge to which he pleaded guilty, and (2) Whether under Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(b)(3), there was a factual basis for Kelly’s guilty pleas. We directed the parties to file supplemental briefs addressing those issues. 1 ECF citations are to the lead case, No. 23-4353. 3 USCA4 Appeal: 23-6704 Doc: 128 Filed: 05/22/2026 Pg: 4 of 7 After receiving Kelly’s counsel’s supplemental brief, we relieved counsel of his duties, appointed new counsel for Kelly, and ordered another round of supplemental briefing on those two issues. Kelly’s new counsel therea