Jones was convicted in 2014 of Hobbs Act robbery and firearms brandishing. After his January 2024 release, he was arrested for driving while impaired and reckless driving, left the judicial district without permission, and tested positive for cocaine, marijuana, amphetamines, and methamphetamine on six occasions.
At the revocation hearing in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen Jr. dismissed a felony counterfeit-instruments charge after the state dropped it. Jones admitted to some or all of the conduct in the remaining charges, including the six positive tests.
Osteen classified the drug-test violation as Grade B, calculated a guidelines range of 8 to 14 months, and imposed a 19-month sentence, varying upward by five months. According to the panel, the district court provided no explanation for elevating the drug-test violations to Grade B status.
Writing for the panel, Circuit Judge Paul Niemeyer held that testing positive violated only the condition requiring drug testing and treatment participation, which constitutes a Grade C violation. Grade B, he explained, is reserved for conduct constituting offenses punishable by more than one year in prison.
Niemeyer rejected the government's argument that illegal drug use could be inferred from the tests, or that a probation officer's supplemental report could alter the charges. The petition, he emphasized, made no reference to illegal drug use or possession, only to the positive tests.
"Every schoolyard child would condemn as unfair such a quick, unexplained maneuver to change the rules of the game," Niemeyer wrote.
The panel also flagged a potential statutory issue under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(h) regarding the length of supervised release imposed upon revocation, but declined to rule on it, commending the issue to the district court for consideration on resentencing.
The Fourth Circuit vacated the judgment and remanded for resentencing consistent with the Grade C classification.