United States Court of Appeals 

For the First Circuit 

Nos. 18-1305 & 18-1306 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

Appellee, 

v. 

JESSE C. NEWTON, 

Defendant, Appellant. 

APPEALS FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF MAINE 

[Hon. John A. Woodcock, U.S. District Judge] 

Before 

Thompson, Boudin, Kayatta, 

 Circuit Judges. 

 

 William S. Maddox for appellant. 

 Jeanne D. Semivan, Special Assistant United States Attorney, 

with whom Halsey B. Frank, United States Attorney, was on brief, 

for appellee. 

August 21, 2020 
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 BOUDIN, Circuit Judge. In July 2017, Jesse Newton 

("Newton") pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, 

18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2), and was sentenced to 120 months 

in prison. Newton appeals his sentencing enhancement for 

possessing a firearm "in connection with another felony offense." 

U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B). 

 In May 2013, Newton pled guilty to possessing ammunition 

after having been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic 

violence and was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by 

three years of supervised release. After Newton completed his 

prison sentence in December 2014, he spent six months at a 

residential reentry center and then went to live at his mother's 

home in Waldo, Maine. 

In January 2016, Newton's probation officer began 

receiving reports that Newton was boasting about hunting and 

possessing firearms, firing guns in his backyard, obtaining 

bullets, making violent threats, and growing and selling marijuana 

out of his mother's home. The Waldo County Deputy Sheriff also 

reported that Newton had told a convenience store employee that he 

wanted to kill a sergeant in the local police force and burn his 

house down. Newton was later suspected of detonating a glass beer 

bottle, containing what appeared to be a commercial firecracker, 

on the sergeant's front porch. 
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In July 2016, Newton was arrested on state charges of 

terrorizing in connection with the detonation incident and 

Newton's residence was searched under a special condition of his 

supervised release. Police seized Newton's cell phone, which 

contained a photo of Newton crouching in a "tactical type" position 

in a marijuana grow and aiming a gun at the camera. Officers 

located the marijuana grow near Newton's residence. It consisted 

of three separate plots with at least forty-six plants at varying 

stages, many of which were full-grown. Inside Newton's home, 

police discovered two boxes of nine-millimeter casings and two 

rifle stocks for an assault rifle. Probation then obtained a 

warrant alleging multiple violations of Newton's supervised 

release. 

Two days later, probation received a tip that Newton had 

hidden a gun within a heating duct inside his home. Officers 

conducted a second search and discovered a loaded nine-millimeter 

semi-automatic pistol wrapped in black fabric. The ammunition 

inside the pistol matched the make and caliber of the casings 

seized earlier from Newton's home; the DNA on the pistol matched 

Newton's DNA profile. 

 In July 2017, Newton pled guilty in Maine district 

court to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. 

18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2). Because Newton had a prior 

felony "crime of violence" conviction, he faced a base offense 
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level of twenty-two. U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(3). The sentencing court 

heard testimony from multiple witnesses about Newton's possession 

of numerous firearms, marijuana growing operation, and efforts to 

intimidate witnesses who might testify against him. The court 

applied a four-level enhancement for handling at least eight 

firearms, id. § 2K2.1(b)(1)(B), a four-level enhancement for 

possessing a firearm in connection with another felony offense, 

namely marijuana cultivation, id. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B), and a twolevel enhancement for obstructing justice, id. § 3C1.1. 

These enhancements brought Newton's total offense level 

to thirty-two, which, paired with a Criminal History Category of 

VI, produced an initial guideline range of 210 to 262 months. The 

district court then amended the guideline range to 120 months 

capped by the statutory maximum for the offense. Id. § 5G1.1(a). 

In assessing the sentencing factors under 18 U.S.C. § 

3553(a), the district judge emphasized Newton's "very troubling" 

criminal history, which included twenty-nine convictions dating 

back to age thirteen. The district judge noted the need to protect 

the public from Newton was "obvious" and Newton had not heeded the 

judge's previous warnings to change his behavior. The district 

judge sentenced Newton to the statutory maximum of 120 months in 

prison on the felon in-possession charge to run consecutively to 

a twenty-four-month revocation sentence for violating his 

supervised release conditions. 
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The only issue on appeal is the district court's 

application of the four-level sentencing enhancement for 

possessing a firearm in connection with another felony offense. 

See U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B). Newton argues that he neither 

committed "another felony offense" nor possessed a firearm "in 

connection with" any such offense. Neither argument has merit. 

The government bears the burden of proving a sentencing 

enhancement by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. 

Paneto, 661 F.3d 709, 715 (1st Cir. 2011). Factual findings are 

reviewed for clear error and application of the guidelines on a 

"sliding scale." United States v. Matthews, 749 F.3d 99, 105 (1st 

Cir. 2014). The clear error standard requires "a strong, 

unyielding belief that a mistake has been made." United States v. 

Oliveira, 907 F.3d 88, 92 (1st Cir. 2018). 

21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) makes cultivating marijuana a 

felony offense. 21 U.S.C. §§ 802(15), 802(22), 812; 18 U.S.C § 

3559(a); 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D). The evidence already described 

amply supports the district court's finding that Newton cultivated 

marijuana. 

 Newton offers various reasons why this evidence fails to 

prove cultivation. Only one deserves mention: that based on 

changing societal trends surrounding recreational marijuana use, 

cultivating a "small marijuana patch" for personal use should not 

qualify as a felony offense. 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(D) dictates, 
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however, that cultivating marijuana in any quantity under 21 U.S.C. 

§ 841(a)(1) is a felony. 

Newton also argues that, contravening this Court's 

decision in Matthews, 749 F.3d at 105, the district court never 

made "findings as to any elements of the specific charge." A 

district court must provide "ultimate findings" when making 

sentencing enhancement determinations, but not "such subsidiary 

findings" of the kind Newton suggests. United States v. Tracy, 36 

F.3d 199, 203 (1st Cir. 1994). A district court must also "state 

in open court the reasons for its imposition of the particular 

sentence." 18 U.S.C. § 3553(c). Nothing in Matthews suggests 

anything different, and the court's actions here easily satisfied 

these requirements. 

Ultimately, the photo of Newton "pointing a gun directly 

at the photographer in the middle of a marijuana grow" supports 

the district court's finding that Newton possessed a firearm "in 

connection with" another felony offense. The "in connection with" 

requirement is satisfied where, as here, the "firearm is found in 

close proximity to drugs." United States v. Cannon, 589 F.3d 514, 

517 (1st Cir. 2009) (citing U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) cmt. n.14). 

Affirmed.