COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
United States – Appellant
Versus
Tinney – Respondent
United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit
FILED June 29, 2021 No. 20-10849 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk
United States of America,
Plaintiff—Appellee,
versus
Larry J. Tinney,
Defendant—Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas USDC No. 4:16-CR-204-1
Before Davis, Duncan, and Oldham, Circuit Judges. Per Curiam: Larry J. Tinney is a serial sexual predator of children and people with disabilities. He violated the conditions of his supervised release, so the district court gave him an 18-month revocation sentence and another five years of supervised release. On appeal, he challenges the sentence and the supervised-release conditions. We affirm. I. Larry J. Tinney is a recidivist sex offender. Among his prior convictions are two for sexually assaulting two 13-year-old children and one Case: 20-10849 Document: 00515918879 Page: 2 Date Filed: 06/29/2021
No. 20-10849
for aggravated sexual assault of a developmentally disabled 15-year-old. Those convictions make Tinney subject to the registration requirements in the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”). Tinney last registered as a sex offender in Springfield, Illinois, in June 2014. He moved in October 2014 but failed to update his address within the grace period, thus violating SORNA. See 18 U.S.C. § 2250(a). In July 2016, the United States Marshals Service found Tinney in a motel in Fort Worth, Texas. Tinney admitted that he obtained a Texas driver’s license in March 2015 and had been in the State of Texas for over a year when he was arrested. Tinney then pled guilty to violating SORNA. The pre-sentence report (“PSR”) assigned Tinney a criminal history category of III and an offense level of 13, yielding a Guidelines range of 18 to 24 months’ imprisonment. Because Tinney’s “history of arrests, convictions, and lengthy sentences ha[d] not deterred [him] from engaging in criminal conduct,” the PSR recommended an upward departure. The district court agreed. The court sentenced Tinney to 48 months’ imprisonment and a five-year term of supervised release. As part of his supervised release, Tinney was directed to “answer truthfully all inquiries by the U.S. Probation Officer and follow [his] instructions.” After serving his custodial sentence, Tinney was released to a residential nursing and rehabilitation center. Almost immediately after arriving there, Tinney preyed on a younger patient with end-stage renal disease who was “incapable of consenting to any type of relationship.” Tinney also did not meaningfully participate in sex offender rehabilitation treatment—he “refus[ed] to answer questions, passively resist[ed] by stating the questions were ‘stupid[,]’ and ignor[ed] the counselor at times.” And during a polygraph examination, Tinney attempted to deceive examiners about his prior offenses. The Probation Office therefore petitioned to revoke
2 Case: 20-10849 Document: 00515918879 Page: 3 Date Filed: 06/29/2
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