United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

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No. 17-1545

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United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Ahmad Jasir Rashad, also known as Diamond L. Coleman

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant

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Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City

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 Submitted: January 8, 2018

 Filed: April 26, 2018

[Published]

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Before LOKEN, BEAM, and KELLY, Circuit Judges.

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PER CURIAM.

Ahmad Rashad appeals the district court’s denial of an 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2)

sentence reduction based upon Sentencing Guidelines Amendment 782, which in

most casesretroactively reduced the drug quantity determination by two base offense

levels. In 1993, a jury convicted Rashad of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and

cocaine base and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The district court
determined that Rashad’s base offense level was 42 based on the cocaine base for

which he was responsible and sentenced him to life in prison on the drug count and

a concurrent 60 months on the money laundering count.

In 1997, based on an earlier retroactive amendment to the drug quantity

guidelines, Rashad’s base offense level was reduced to 38, the highest level for 15 to

50 kilograms of cocaine base, and his sentence was reduced to 381 months. In 2009,

the district court denied Rashad’s § 3582(c)(2) motion to reduce his sentence under

Amendment 706, concluding that the amendment did not lower his base offense level. 

We summarily affirmed. In 2013, the court denied Rashad’s § 3582(c)(2) motion to

reduce his sentence under Amendment 750, again concluding that his drug quantity

was above the level for revised base offense level 38. Again, we summarily affirmed. 

The district court denied the present motion, finding that Rashad does not

qualify for a § 3582(c)(2) reduction because he “was accountable for 40 kilograms

of cocaine base.” Rashad argues the court erred because his original sentencing

record did not establish that he was responsible for more than 25.2 kilograms of

cocaine base, the minimum quantity for base offense level 38 under Amendment 782. 

We disagree. The original sentencing proceedings were extensive, with multiple

addendums to the Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) and two sentencing

hearings. Much of the delay was due to a complex inquiry into the drug quantities

attributable to a far-flung conspiracy and to Rashad’s role in that conspiracy. 

Paragraph 40 of the initial PSR explained that Rashad should be held responsible for

“a conservative estimate of 40 kilograms of crack [cocaine].” Rashad objected to that

determination. The government criticized the PSR’s explanation but submitted its

own tabulation attributing 42.4 kilograms of cocaine base to Rashad. At the

conclusion of the final hearing, the district court ruled:

I believe the conclusions in paragraph 40 are fully supported by credible

evidence [at trial]. . . . I believe . . . based on the record that it is entirely

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justified . . . at page 12 of the [PSR] that the amount of 40 kilograms of

cocaine base is conservative, more than 40 is conservative. . . . [T]he

challenge to paragraph 40 is denied.

Based on this record, we agree with the district court that Rashad was held

accountable for 40 kilograms of cocaine base at his initial sentencing. A district court

may make supplemental findings in a § 3582(c)(2) proceeding “if the findings are

necessary to deciding the motion and do not contradict any findings made at

sentencing.” United States v. Moore, 706 F.3d 926, 928 (8th Cir.) (emphasis added),

cert. denied, 134 S. Ct. 299 (2013). Here, having found that a finding of 40 kilograms

was made at Rashad’s initial sentencing, the district court properly declined his

invitation to revisit that finding and concluded that Amendment 782 did not affect his

base offense level of 38.

The Order of the district court dated February 22, 2017, is affirmed. 

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