United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit ____________________ No. 23-1426 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. HERBERT HOLDER, Defendant-Appellant. ____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. No. 21-cr-40047-SMY-1 — Staci M. Yandle, Judge. ____________________

ARGUED DECEMBER 7, 2023 — DECIDED MARCH 5, 2024 ____________________

Before WOOD, KIRSCH, and JACKSON-AKIWUMI, Circuit Judges. WOOD, Circuit Judge. For several years, Herbert Holder made his living as a methamphetamine dealer in Williamson County, Illinois. Eventually, however, the government caught up with him, and he pleaded guilty to three charges stem- ming from those activities. The district court sentenced him to 240 months in prison, a term that was 22 months below the advisory range calculated under the U.S. Sentencing 2 No. 23-1426 Guidelines. On appeal, Holder challenges only his sentence, which he says is tainted by both procedural and substantive error. The alleged procedural flaw lay in the court’s failure to consider one of his arguments; the substantive problem was its failure to attach sufficient weight to his mitigation argu- ments. We find no reversible error in either of these respects, and so we affirm. I Law enforcement officers launched an investigation into Holder’s drug-trafficking activities in March 2021, after learn- ing from a confidential informant that Holder was his meth- amphetamine dealer. During the next month, undercover agents purchased 3.5-gram batches of methamphetamine from Holder on three separate occasions. The officers next ob- tained a warrant to search Holder’s home. That search uncov- ered 186 grams of methamphetamine hidden in various safes and compartments, a loaded Ruger LC9S 9mm semi-auto- matic handgun, and a large amount of ammunition. Holder previously had been convicted of multiple felonies. The government indicted Holder on three counts: distrib- uting methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C), possessing with intent to distribute methamphetamine, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A), and being a felon in posses- sion of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Holder pleaded guilty to everything. The presentence report (“PSR”) calculated a base offense level of 32, relying on the conservative estimate that Holder’s drug-trafficking activities between 2019 and 2021 involved 196.9 grams of actual methamphetamine and 739 grams of a mixture and substance containing metham- phetamine, see U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(4). The PSR also classified Holder as a career offender pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 4B1.1, No. 23-1426 3 based on his prior Illinois felony convictions for unlawful de- livery of cannabis in 2002, for unlawful possession of meth- amphetamine in 2003, and for possession with intent to de- liver cannabis in 2009. After accounting for Holder’s career of- fender enhancement, see id., an enhancement for possessing a firearm, see U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(1), and reductions for his timely plea and acceptance of responsibility, see U.S.S.G. §§ 3E1.1(a) and (b), Holder’s total offense level was 34. Com- bined with a criminal-history category of VI, he wound up with a recommended guidelines range of 262 to 327 months’ imprisonment. In his pre-sentence filings, Holder urged that several facts warranted a downward variance. He explained that although he had been sober for a substantial period, he relapsed after his mother passed away in 2018. This was important, he said, because his drug addiction impaired his decision-making ability. He also cited