Case ID: f-appx_67/html/0986-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "PER CURIAM.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Tamara TOWNSEND, Appellant.
    No. 02-4002.
    United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.
    Submitted May 13, 2003.
    Decided June 20, 2003.
    Before WOLLMAN and BEAM, Circuit Judges, and NANGLE, District Judge.
    
      
      . The Honorable John F. Nangle, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri, sitting by designation.
    
   PER CURIAM.

Tamara Townsend pled guilty to one count of bank fraud, a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344, for which the district court sentenced her to twenty-four months’ imprisonment. Townsend appeals the sentence, contending that the district court erred by applying a two-level sentence enhancement pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2Bl.l(b)(9)(C)(i). We affirm.

Section 2B.l.l(b)(9)(C)(i) of the United States Sentencing Guidelines authorizes a two-level increase in a defendant’s base offense level in cases in which the defendant has transferred or used any means of identification without authorization unlawfully to produce or obtain any other means of identification. U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 (b)(9)(C)(i). In this case, Townsend stole a checkbook from a colleague’s purse and copied personal identifying information from the colleague’s driver’s licence. Using the stolen information, Townsend opened credit accounts at businesses in and around Little Rock, Arkansas, from which she purchased merchandise. Townsend also stole identifying information from a second colleague, including a debit card number. She used this information to purchase merchandise from a mail order catalog and to open other credit accounts, which she used to buy jewelry. Thus, Townsend’s use of stolen information enabled her to establish credit accounts, which constitute means of identification. See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1 cmt. n.7(C)(ii) (“A defendant obtains an individual’s name and address from a source and applies for, obtains, and subsequently uses a credit card in that individual’s name.... [T]he credit card is the other means of identification that has been obtained unlawfully.”) Accordingly, the district court correctly applied the two-level sentence enhancement.

The judgment is affirmed.

A true copy. 
      
      . The Honorable G. Thomas Eisele, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas.