Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca5-14-60464/USCOURTS-ca5-14-60464-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Derek Miller
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT

No. 14-60464

Summary Calendar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff-Appellee

v.

DEREK MILLER, also known as St Louis,

Defendant-Appellant

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Northern District of Mississippi

USDC No. 1:12-CR-159-1

Before DAVIS, CLEMENT, and COSTA, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM:*

Derek Miller appeals the sentence imposed following his guilty plea 

convictions for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and 

money laundering. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of 160 months of 

imprisonment and three years of supervised release on each count. He 

contends that the district court erred by applying a two-level enhancement 

pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(1) for possession of a firearm.

* Pursuant to 5TH CIR. R. 47.5, the court has determined that this opinion should not 

be published and is not precedent except under the limited circumstances set forth in 5TH 

CIR. R. 47.5.4.

United States Court of Appeals

Fifth Circuit

FILED

March 19, 2015

Lyle W. Cayce

Clerk

 

Case: 14-60464 Document: 00512974632 Page: 1 Date Filed: 03/19/2015
No. 14-60464

We review the district court’s factual finding that § 2D1.1(b)(1) applies 

for clear error. See United States v. King, 773 F.3d 48, 52 (5th Cir. 2014). The 

enhancement was based on the firearm found with $20,000 in cash in a dresser 

drawer in a bedroom in Miller’s mother’s house. Regardless of whether the 

$20,000 was intended to be used in a subsequent drug transaction, a 

preponderance of the evidence plausibly established a temporal and spatial 

relationship between the firearm, Miller’s drug dealing, and Miller. See id. at 

52-53. The firearm was found in the same dresser drawer as $20,000 in drug 

proceeds and in the same house where Miller admitted that he gave drug 

proceeds to his sister to store elsewhere and packaged $66,000 in drug proceeds 

to be used in a subsequent drug transaction. This undisputed evidence 

supported the district court’s implicit inference that Miller possessed the 

firearm to protect himself and his drug proceeds. See United States v. Vasquez, 

161 F.3d 909, 912-13 (5th Cir. 1998). The district court also did not clearly err 

in finding that Miller did not meet his burden of showing that it was clearly 

improbable that the firearm was related to his drug dealing. See King, 773 

F.3d at 52-53. 

The district court’s judgment is AFFIRMED.

2

Case: 14-60464 Document: 00512974632 Page: 2 Date Filed: 03/19/2015