Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-92-02065/USCOURTS-ca10-92-02065-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Refugio Cano-Pena
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Plaintiff-Appellee, 

SEP 1 ?' 1992 

ROBERT L. HOECKER 

Clerk ) 

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No. 92-2065 

v. 

REFUGIO CANO-PENA, 

Defendant-Appellant. 

(D.C. No. CR 91-528 JP) 

(D.N.M.) 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

Before SEYMOUR, ANDERSON, BALDOCK, Circuit Judges. 

Defendant Refugio Cano-Pena pled guilty to a charge of 

possession with intent to distribute less than 50 kilograms of 

marijuana. He appeals the district court's sentence based on a 

finding that the marijuana weighed 44.6 pounds, or just over 20 

kilograms. 

The district court must determine by a preponderance of the 

evidence the amount of drugs involved for purposes of sentencing. 

See United States v. Molina-Cuartas, 952 F.2d 345, 348 (10th Cir. 

1991). We must accept those findings unless we determine them to 

be clearly erroneous. Id. 

Here, the government proffered evidence that an agent weighed 

the marijuana on a certified, calibrated scale two days after 

*This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall not 

be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, except 

for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of the case, 

res judicata, or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 36.3. 

Appellate Case: 92-2065 Document: 010110322557 Date Filed: 09/17/1992 Page: 1
defendant was arrested, and determined the weight to be 44.6 

pounds. Although the same marijuana weighed only slightly over 22 

pounds when it was reweighed just three months later, the 

government put on evidence through a chemist that it is not 

unusual for marijuana to lose over half its weight through 

dehydration in that amount of time, given the manner in which it 

was stored. Although defendant questions the reliability of 

evidence regarding how much weight marijuana "usually" loses 

through dehydration, there is no evidence to undermine the 

accuracy of the original weighing of the marijuana. Under these 

circumstances, we do not have a definite and firm conviction that 

the district court erred in finding the weight to be 44.6 pounds. 

The judgment of the district court is AFFIRMED. The mandate 

shall issue forthwith. 

Entered for the Court 

Stephanie K. Seymour 

Circuit Judge 

Appellate Case: 92-2065 Document: 010110322557 Date Filed: 09/17/1992 Page: 2