Joshua writes in his own words on struggle, growth and finding hope at www.thejoshuabevillprisondiaries.com

Click here to read Joshua's article about how the federal government uses uncharged crimes and acquitted crimes to imprison people.

U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Run Amok

In federal court, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines drive an offender's sentence. The chart starts at level 1 and goes as high as level 43, life in prison without the possibility of parole, or death by Imprisonment, extreme punishment reserved for irredeemable offenders such as terrorists and people who traffic very young children for the use of pornography. Or is it?

U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Run Amok

In federal court, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines drive an offender's sentence. The chart starts at level 1 and goes as high as level 43, life in prison without the possibility of parole, or death by imprisonment, extreme punishment reserved for irredeemable offenders such as terrorists and people who traffic very young children for the use of pornography. Or is it?

Joshua Bevill's U.S. Sentencing Guideline score was life in prison without the possibility of parole. As a result, he received a 30-year sentence, the statutory maximum. But he didn't plot to blow up a building or hijack a plane or traffic young children so as to make porn videos.

Nor did he steal tens or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Joshua Bevill committed a relatively minor (low-level) white-collar offense: he made misrepresentations to three high-net-worth investors, causing a combined loss of $106,000—that's $106 thousand, not $106 million.

An Unprecedented Double Punishment Sentencing Anomaly Increased Joshua's Sentencing Range by Decades

Notably, Joshua had two securities fraud cases (his 2006 - 2008 case & his 2010 case), but there was no intervening prison time, meaning he did not serve time, re-offend, and then serve time again. He was sentenced in both cases at the same time. 

In particular, I'm his earlier case he was charged in a 2006 - 2008 case involving North Texas Partners/United Star Petroleum. In that case, he was held responsible for $4 million in losses + 101 investor/victims + 4-level leader role sentencing enhancement + 4-level broker-dealer sentencing enhancement + 2-level violating an administrative order sentence enhancement, for a total Offense Level of 42, producing a sentencing range 30 years to life in prison.

In that case, although Joshua's sentencing range was 30 years to life in prison, his statutory maximum sentence was 5 years. As such, he received a 5-year prison term, the harshest punishment allowed under the law.  He paid his full debt for that conduct.

In a separate, unrelated (and much less severe) 2010 case involving Progressive Investment Partners, Joshua was held responsible for $106,000 in actual losses ($212,000 in intended loss) + 3 investor/victims + no leader role sentencing enhancement + no violating an administrative order sentence enhancement, for a total Offense Level of 17, yielding a sentencing range of 37 to 47 months in prison. 

In preparing the Presentence Investigation Report for the sentencing judge, the probation department took all the conduct already used in Joshua's earlier 2006 - 2008 case and used it again to calculate his Offense Level/sentencing range in his present 2011 case. 

Doing so caused his Offense Level in his present 2011 case to leap by 25 levels, thereby increasing his sentencing range from 37 to 47 months in prison to 30 years to life in prison, a different order of severity altogether.

In other words, this mathematical sentencing anomaly yielded a decades-long sentence that had little to no connection to the seriousness of Joshua's present case, a $106,000 securities fraud case. 

In Response to the Sentencing Anomaly, Federal Prosecutors Argue in Favor of Joshua, Asking the Judge Not to Impose a Sentence Greater Than 10 Years in Prison, In Spite of the Draconian Sentencing Range

But even federal prosecutors were struck by the extreme unfairness of his sentencing anomaly. In short, in his earlier case, under a lesser 5-year statute, Joshua was punished for the $4 million in losses + 101 investor/victims + leader role enhancement + violating an administrative order enhancement + broker-dealer enhancement; then that very same conduct was applied a second time, under much greater 20-year statutes, to his present 2011 case, even though his present case involved only a $106,000 loss amount + 3 investor/victims and none of the other sentence enhancements from the earlier case. 

Basically—a new label was slapped on the same conduct, which increased Joshua's second sentence by decades. 

Put differently; this effect was artificial and illusory—by hitching Joshua's earlier case to his present case for the express purpose of inflating his sentencing range by a literal lifetime, it made his present case look much worse, producing a sentence range of 30 years to life in prison for a crime that involved a relatively minor $106,000 fraud. His 2010 case was just a vehicle to punish him a second time for the conduct already punished in his earlier case.

Strikingly, because of this anomaly, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines were saying that a man making misrepresentations to 3 wealthy investors, resulting in a $106,000 loss, called for a longer sentence than a person who trafficked young children for the use of pornography or engaged in terrorism. 

Prosecutors even thought the result was irrational, radically overstating the seriousness of Joshua's relatively minor present case. As such, prosecutors asked for an extraordinary downward variance of roughly 60 to 90 percent, based purely on the 3553 sentencing factors, which is almost unheard of. 

For perspective, a federal prosecutor asking the judge to sentence a defendant to decades lower than his actual sentencing range is a very rare event that speaks to the extreme unfairness of Joshua's case. 

To support their position, prosecutors cited the unprecedented sentencing anomaly, underscoring how it unfairly caused Joshua's sentencing range to balloon. Prosecutors also emphasized Joshua's personal characteristics and background, arguing that it would be punitive and pointless to warehouse a person like Joshua for decades for a $106,000 fraud involving three wealthy investors/victims. Prosecutors stressed that upon release after serving a 10-year sentence, Joshua is not a danger to the public nor likely to re-offend.

In the end, Joshua was given 30 years in federal prison.

Make no mistake; of the millions of cases to flow through federal court since the advent of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines in the '80s, this perverse effect is unprecedented—that is, it has never happened before, which explains why federal prosecutors asked for an unheard of 60 to 90 percent downward variance, to help offset the perverse effect.

How The Court Added Decades to Joshua Bevill's Sentence in his 2011 Case Based on Entirely Separate Uncharged Unrelated 2004 Crimes that Allegedly Occurred Many Years Before Joshua's 2011 Crime of Conviction

But there's another unprecedented wrinkle that gives the case another dimension of unfairness.  We just explained the unfair effect of the earlier case conduct having been used to sentence Joshua a second time, in his present case. But most of the conduct used to sentence him in his earlier case constitutes entirely separate crimes he was never charged with, tried for, or convicted of. 

Worse still, the uncharged crimes allegedly occurred some 7 years before the conduct in Joshua's present case even began, and even worse, the uncharged crimes had absolutely nothing to do with Joshua's present case.

With that, as already mentioned, the conduct from his earlier case was used a second to so as to artificially inflate his sentencing range in his present case.

Thus, the point is, most of the conduct used to sentence him in his present case constitutes entirely separate (stale) crimes that he was never charged with, tried for, or convicted of.

Plainly, Joshua's relatively minor $106,000 (2011) securities fraud case was really a vehicle to punish him for entirely separate uncharged, untried (2004) crimes that weren't even remotely related to his present case.

On the surface, it appears as though Joshua received 30 years in federal prison because he perpetrated a multimillion-dollar fraud against more than 100 investors/victims. But the truth is in the details. We characterize Joshua's case as a jackpot because it is a prime example of how federal sentencing can careen out of control and produce an outrageous, disproportionately harsh, punitive sentence that spans decades and has little to no connection to the seriousness and harm of the offense.

Details About Joshua's Involvement with the Uncharged Crimes 

Joshua took full responsibility for his crimes of conviction. He, however, vehemently denied responsibility for the old uncharged crimes.

Here's a little background. In 2004, Tracy Pool, who owned Reunion Resources, furnished the owners of The Pointer Group (Bill and Roy) with oil and gas projects to fund. Thus, in 2004 The Pointer Group's salesforce raised $2.7 million from 63 investors. Upon raising the money, the owners of The Pointer Group sent the funds to Tracy Pool, who was supposed to invest the money. Unbeknown to The Pointer Group, Pool spent much of the money on personal expenses rather than investing it. 

As a result, the investors sued Pool. During the civil case, under oath, Pool did not dodge responsibility but candidly admitted that when The Pointer Group sent him the investors' money, he made them believe he invested it, but he spent it on himself. Using Pool's confession in the civil case, the FBI opened a criminal investigation into Pool. Pool became a cooperating government witness by helping the government prosecute others associated with his various frauds but maintained that The Pointer Group and Joshua (who was a low-level Pointer Group employee) did not know about his fraud.

But what does the alleged uncharged Pointer Group crimes from 2004 have to do with Joshua's 2011 case? Nothing.

If you're confused, you should be. Although the uncharged crimes were wholly unrelated to the crime of conviction, under the guise of so-called uncharged relevant conduct, the uncharged (2004) crimes were hitched to the relatively minor (2011) crimes of conviction..

In federal court, there is a dangerous legal loophole the courts exploit and pervert, which allows courts to convict defendants of one relatively minor crime only to add many years and even decades to their sentences for entirely separate uncharged, untried crimes—a shady practice that many in the legal community have denounced. 

With the flick of a pen, Joshua's 2011 conviction for a $106,000 securities fraud that merited a few years in prison was turned into a multimillion-dollar fraud that resulted in three decades, without parole, in federal prison

Additionally, here are some critical facts about Joshua's involvement with uncharged The Pointer Group crimes, which were undisputed by the government: 

At twenty-three years old, Joshua only worked at The Pointer Group for 3 months as a low-level salesman, with no managerial duties or control.

As a low-level salesman, Joshua's take was less than 1 percent of the total $2.7 million raised by The Pointer Group.

Most of the $2.7 million was raised by The Pointer Group after Joshua had left the company.

Cooperating government witness Tracy Pool testified under oath in the civil case that he carried out the fraud without the knowledge of The Pointer Group and Joshua.

Even though at Joshua's sentencing, the government insisted that owners of The Pointer Group were in on the fraud and made a cool million dollars, the government never charged them with a crime—they did not cooperate with the government but steadfastly maintained their innocence.

The "evidence" to support the finding that Joshua was responsible for the entire $2.7 million in losses + 63 investor/victims was the uncorroborated, unsworn, untested out-of-court hearsay from someone who said that after Joshua left The Pointer Group and after The Pointer Group raised the $2.7 million, he told Joshua that it was really a scam because Pool wasn't investing the money. Bevill supposedly shrugged it off, saying, "I don't care. I just want to make money." 

When investors sued Pool for the $2.7 million, Joshua was not involved in the civil case—he was neither questioned nor deposed. 

Outside of the superficial similarity that both involved oil and gas projects, there was no relationship between Joshua's 2011 case (Progressive Investment Partners) and the uncharged 2004 (The Pointer Group) crimes; that is, no one—accomplices nor investor/victims—involved in The Pointer Group were involved in Joshua's Progressive Investment Partners company.

Some of The Most Highly Regarded Legal Minds in The Nation, Denounce as Well As Call Unconstitutional the Shady Practice of Using Crimes A Defendant Was Never Charged With, Tried For, or Convicted of to Imprison People

We denounce countries like Russia for their unfair system of justice. Sure, the American federal justice system masks the realities in ways that obscure injustice with a veneer of pseudo-process and procedure, putting a phony gloss of reliability on the proceedings. But the proceedings are one-sided, superficial, and hollow, in which the result is baked into the process. And that's the beauty of it. 

Speaking out against this practice, Judge Lay for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals pointed out, "If the former Soviet Union or a third world country had permitted [sentencing based on uncharged crimes], human rights observers would condemn those countries." More recently, then-U.S. Court of Appeals judge, now Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh echoed that sentiment: "Allowing judges to rely on...uncharged conduct to impose a higher sentence than they otherwise would impose seems a dubious infringement of the rights of due process and jury trial." Kavanaugh added, "If you have a right to have a jury find beyond a reasonable doubt the facts that make you guilty, and if you otherwise would receive, for example, a five-year sentence, why don't you have a right to have a jury find a beyond a reasonable doubt the facts that increase that five-year sentence to, say, a 20-year sentence." U.S. v. Bell, 803 F.3d 926, 928 (D.C. Circuit 2015).

Similarly, when now U.S. Supreme Court Justice Gorsuch was an Appeals Court Judge for the Tenth Circuit, he questioned the constitutionality of this practice, pointing out, "Known as relevant conduct, judge-found facts which often include uncharged and even acquitted conduct driving federal sentences, often increasing terms of imprisonment by years and even decades." 

In 2007, in Jones v. United States, four U.S. Supreme Court Justices were fed up with the practice of allowing the government to convict a defendant of one relatively minor crime only to base his punishment primarily on entirely separate uncharged crimes or other uncharged criminal conduct—and so they wanted to outlaw the practice as unconstitutional. There, they made this emphatic statement: "The Court of Appeals have uniformly taken our [The Supreme Court] continuing silence to suggest that the Constitution does permit unreasonable sentences supported by judicial fact-finding, so long as they were within the statutory range." The court added, "This has gone on long enough." (Emphasis added.

However, the majority in the high court refused to take on the issue. But that was quite a while ago. With three new Supreme Court Justices—Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Jackson—having been appointed since then who have spoken out against the practice, the Supreme Court might have the votes if the issue is revisited.

In a 2017 Supreme Court case, Nelson v. Colorado, the court emphasized the paramount importance of the presumption of innocence in the American justice system. There, the Court asked how the government can use separate uncharged crimes as a vehicle to add additional punishment to the crime of conviction if, in this country, our system of justice says the criminally accused are presumed innocent until proven guilty. The court there issued a ruling that some scholars say actually stands for the proposition that entirely separate uncharged, untried crimes cannot be used to enhance the sentence of a separate crime of conviction. 

The nation's most highly regarded legal scholars have also weighed in on the issue. Allan Ellis, a national expert on federal sentencing law, and Mark Allenbaugh, former sentencing commission lawyer, explained, in an interview with The News, that the relevant conduct loophole is "an end run around the Constitution." "Defendants don't realize this when they go to trial or plead guilty." He added, "If the evidence is strong enough, the government should charge the defendant with a crime and let the jury decide rather than slip it in during sentencing." 

When Ohio State Law Professor/legal scholar Douglas Berman explained this concept to his class, he said that his students thought he was playing a joke on them. I think that says it all. Berman himself has shed light on this unfair practice in detailed studies. The list of highly regarded people in the legal community who denounce this practice goes on and on; there are far too many to note here.

Injustice wears many faces. It's not always black and white. Rather, it can be subtle. This brand of injustice is particularly insidious.

About Joshua Bevill

Joshua grew up in McKinney, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.  Growing up, Joshua excelled at school and sports. Joshua lived and breathed sports, playing year-round.

While Joshua and his two sisters were young, his mother was a secretary at Bell Helicopter and attended night school to obtain a nursing degree. She eventually worked her way up to a hospital director in McKinney.  Joshua's mother and stepfather raised him when his biological parents divorced when he was five.  His stepfather was a Marine turned police officer turned detective for the railroad.  His biological father, Gary, was a small business owner focused on auto repair. Gary is a pilot, a preacher from time to time at Trinity Lighthouse Church in Denison, Texas, was the Chaplain for the Denison Police Department, and much more—fully immersed in the Church and community outreach.

Joshua had a stable, middle-class upbringing in a healthy household focused on goals and discipline, with plenty of love and support.

Joshua spent his summers playing baseball for all-star teams in tournaments all over Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.  During Joshua's senior year in high school, he was statistically one of the best offensive baseball players in North Texas, as each week, the Dallas Morning News published a list of the top offensive players (i.e., batting average and home runs) in North Texas; Joshua was consistently ranked in the top 3.

In his late teens, Joshua began to binge drink.  Between the ages of 17 and 22, his binge drinking led to poor decision making, which resulted in some scrapes with the law. In a March 1, 2012 Sentencing Memorandum, federal prosecutors characterized Joshua's criminal history as "relatively minor crimes that the Defendant committed between ages 17 and 22."

About four years ago—the now 43-year-old Joshua also became involved in the Word of God for the first time in prison. Cultivating a daily, intimate relationship with Christ has become central to Joshua’s lifestyle, not merely an event every Sunday.  If you don't know this about Joshua, then you don't know Joshua.  Joshua mentors other prisoners dealing with addiction, depression, and other emotional and psychological problems that inevitably spring up during a prison term. He also encourages fellow prisoners to learn about and cultivate a meaningful relationship with Christ.

Joshua has an extensive library of Christian books he's read while in prison, which he loans to other prisoners.  Through a friend, he even publishes online Christian book reviews. Joshua's favorite pastor is Tony Evans of Oak Cliff Bible Church in Dallas. Joshua also studies many of the late Zane Hodges' works, one of Evans’ old professors at Dallas Theological Center.

But Joshua's primary source is the bible itself. Notably, from prison, Joshua has also written extensively about living an authentic Christian life, how it can combat and cure addiction, depression, and much more. These posts are currently published online.

Joshua also cultivates a lifelong passion for nutrition science and fitness. Additionally, Joshua spends time researching to write and publish online articles for The Justice Project, a legal advocacy group in Austin/Dallas/Houston.  He's written more than 40 online articles. What's more, Joshua has spent the last decade-plus immersed in every facet of federal sentencing law and spends a considerable amount of time helping other prisoners identify and articulate their legal arguments, as prisoners do not have a right to an attorney during the post-conviction stage and almost no prisoner can afford an attorney at that point.

Joshua has facilitated the release of different prisoners by helping them construct cogent arguments that resulted in a court granting relief. Notably, most prisoners lack basic education, making it very difficult for them to pinpoint and litigate complex legal issues, so Joshua helps them with this laborious and tedious task.

Noteworthy as well, while in prison, Joshua lived in a special housing unit designated for the Mentor/Mentee program.  There, Joshua was required to program all day and even some at night and mentor other prisoners.  What's more, Joshua was an Inmate Care Assistant at the prison hospital at Fort Worth Medical Center.  As part of his job duties, he helped elderly, terminally ill, and sick inmates carry out daily tasks, working 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week.

Beyond all this, this year (2023) alone, Joshua is on track to complete more than 15 classes, some of which span weeks or months. In all, Joshua has completed hundreds of hours of programs, having taken a very long list of courses the prison offers, including the 40-hour drug treatment course.

Over the last eight years, Joshua has maintained a near-perfect prison disciplinary record.  He also works a daily prison job as an orderly.

In sum, Joshua has made extensive rehabilitative efforts.  But, more importantly, no prison progress report can capture Joshua's investment in his relationship with Christ and the daily time spent in God's Word, which has led to a radical character transformation and marked behavior changes that cannot be reduced to a progress report.

For a low-level, nonviolent crime, Joshua must serve 30 years in federal prison, a system that does not offer parole.  He's about to start his 14th year in prison.  To paraphrase and borrow the words that federal prosecutor Alan Buie spoke to Joshua's sentencing judge, "Given the nature of Joshua's nonviolent, low-level offense, coupled with his specific background and character, it would not serve a valid purpose to imprison Joshua for more than 10 years; and to imprison him for 25 years would be senseless and purely punitive, only serving to unfairly warehouse Joshua, who is neither a danger to the public nor likely to re-offend."

Translation: Joshua does not need to sit in a cage for three decades to accomplish the goals of sentencing.