PUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 20-4129 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff – Appellee, v. PHILIP BERNARD FRIEND, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Richmond. Henry E. Hudson, Senior District Judge. (3:99-cr-00201-HEH-RCY-4) Argued: March 11, 2021 Decided: June 28, 2021 Before WILKINSON, FLOYD, and RICHARDSON, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Wilkinson wrote the opinion, in which Judge Richardson joined. Judge Floyd wrote a dissenting opinion. ARGUED: Robert James Wagner, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellant. Richard Daniel Cooke, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Geremy C. Kamens, Federal Public Defender, Alexandria, Virginia, Joseph S. Camden, Assistant Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellant. G. Zachary Terwilliger, United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, Brian R. Hood, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. WILKINSON, Circuit Judge: Appellant Philip Friend, who actively participated as a fifteen-year-old juvenile in a series of violent carjackings, challenges the fifty-two-year sentence imposed by the district court after a remand in this case. Our remand instructed the district court to give a more thorough explanation for its sentence, with the prospect that a more tempered sentence might also result. United States v. Friend, 755 F. App’x 234 (4th Cir. 2018). These things have now both come to pass. The offenses in question occurred long ago, but their consequences have been long lasting. Because the district court acted within its discretion in imposing the present sentence, we affirm. I. A. The relevant facts are undisputed. In 1999, at the age of fifteen, Philip Friend and several other associates and family members perpetrated a series of carjackings, beatings, and murders in Virginia. Philip worked primarily with his mother, his older brother Travis (then-age nineteen), and his older brother Eugene (then-age twenty-seven). The crime spree began as Eugene’s brainchild; the family plotted to steal a long-haul truck and use it to ship marijuana from Texas. The family members specifically chose to target “older, independent truckers because they perceived them as more vulnerable and less likely to have their disappearances generate immediate attention.” J.A. 238–39. The family murdered its first victim, Soren Cornforth, in Richmond, Virginia, on March 1, 1999. Cornforth had just promised his wife that he would retire from long-haul trucking when the Friend family attacked him. J.A. 527. Philip and Eugene entered 2 Cornforth’s truck and beat him while the driver was waiting overnight to deliver his cargo. J.A. 370–71. Cornforth fought back more vigorously than expected, so Travis, at Eugene’s direction, shot Cornforth dead. J.A. 371, 407. The group fled without taking Cornforth’s truck, fearing the gunshots would soon attract the police, but it took several of his personal possessions. J.A. 371. When Philip exited Cornforth’s truck, he had blood on his hands, jeans, and shirt. J.A. 402. The family attacked its second victim, John Wesley Cummings, …
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