United States Court of Appeals

FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

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No. 10-3090

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United States of America, *

*

Plaintiff - Appellee, *

* Appeal from the United States

v. * District Court for the Western

* District of Missouri.

Quentin R. Grays, *

*

Defendant - Appellant. *

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Submitted: April 11, 2011

Filed: May 2, 2011

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Before LOKEN, BALDOCK , and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

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MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

Quentin Grays pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in

violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The district court sentenced him to 108 months

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in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Grays appeals his sentence,

arguing the district court erred in applying a cross reference under the sentencing

The Honorable Bobby R. Baldock, United States Circuit Judge for the Tenth 1

Circuit, sitting by designation. 

The Honorable Greg Kays, United States District Judge for the Western 2

District of Missouri.
guidelines and in converting cash to its drug equivalent for purposes of calculating

the drug quantity involved in the offense. We affirm.

Kansas City police arrested Grays, already a felon at the time, in May 2008 for

evading officers and committing traffic violations during a car chase. A search

incident to the arrest revealed he had in his possession a Ruger handgun and small

quantities of crack, cocaine, and marijuana. A year later, in May 2009, Grays sold

crack to a confidential informant (CI). The next month the same CI informed police

that Grays was armed and driving a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe. A tactical squad acting

on the tip found the Tahoe unattended in a shopping center parking lot. When Grays

emerged from the shopping center, he saw the waiting police and fled on foot. He

pulled a Glock handgun from his waistband and flung it under a parked car before

officers overtook and arrested him. They searched Grays and discovered he had

$5350 in cash on him, including 200 twenty dollar bills. Officers inventoried Grays’

Tahoe after his arrest and found 13.91 grams of crack inside. They also recovered the

handgun Grays had tossed away.

Grays was indicted on two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm,

one count for the Ruger he had in 2008 and the other for the Glock he was carrying

in 2009. Without a written plea agreement Grays pled guilty to the count charging

possession of the Ruger, and the government dismissed the remaining charge. At

sentencing Detective Don Stanze testified about the 2009 arrest. He said that the

amount of crack found in the Tahoe made it likely that it wasintended for distribution

rather than personal use. He also said that twenty dollar bills are commonly used in

the drug trade. Grays’ sister, Keaira Grays, testified on his behalf. She said that she

had given Grays $5000 in cash on June 6, 2009, as a down payment toward her

purchase of his Tahoe. She did not claim to have any personal knowledge of whether

Grays had that cash with him on the day of his arrest.

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The district court did not credit Keaira Grays’ testimony because of internal

inconsistencies in her story. The court instead credited officer Stanze’s testimony and

found that the $5350 in cash was connected to Grays' drug business. In calculating

Grays’ sentence, the district court applied the cross reference at United States

Sentencing Guidelines § 2K2.1(c)(1), which istriggered when a defendant possesses

a firearm in connection with an underlying offense. The presentence report (PSR)

had identified the underlying offense as drug trafficking. 

The court adopted the PSR and applied § 2D1.1 of the sentencing guidelines,

which requires a calculation of the quantity of drugs involved in order to determine

the offense level. The court took into account the amount of crack, cocaine, and

marijuana involved in the 2008 arrest, the sale to the CI, and the 2009 arrest. It also

accounted for the cash found on Grays by calculating how much crack $5350 would

represent, using a rate of $65 per 1.58 grams (the amount the CI paid Grays for the

1.58 grams of crack he purchased in 2009). Pursuant to application note 10 of §

2D1.1, the court converted the crack and cocaine into their marijuana equivalents and

totaled the marijuana involved. Grays’ guideline sentencing range was calculated to

be 87 to 108 months. The court sentenced him to 108 months.

Grays appeals his sentence, arguing that the § 2K2.1(c)(1) cross reference was

incorrectly applied because he possessed a firearm in connection with drug

possession, not drug trafficking. He also argues that the cash should not have been

converted into its drug equivalent. We review the district court’s application of the

sentencing guidelines de novo and its factual findings for clear error. United States

v. Swanson, 610 F.3d 1005, 1007 (8th Cir. 2010).

After review of the record, we conclude that the district court did not clearly

err in finding that Grays possessed a firearm in connection with drug trafficking. He

had a distribution quantity of drugs with him when police found him in possession

of the Glock. Though he pled guilty only to the Ruger count, there is no requirement

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that the firearm for which an enhancement isimposed be the same asthe one involved

in the count to which the defendant pled guilty. See United States v. Mann, 315 F.3d

1054, 1056 (8th Cir. 2003). The enhancement applies even when the offense of

conviction and the possession of the firearm are not contemporaneous. United States

v. Davis, 360 F.3d 901, 903 (8th Cir. 2004). There is sufficient evidence to support

the court’s finding that Grays possessed the Glock in connection with a drug

trafficking offense, which properly triggered the cross reference to § 2D1.1.

We also conclude that the district court did not clearly err in converting the

cash into its crack equivalent. “[I]n order to accurately reflect the scale of drug

trafficking activity, the Guidelines authorize the district court to convert seized

money into a quantity of drugs.” United States v. King, 518 F.3d 571, 575 (8th Cir.

2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, the court considered it likely that the

moneywas connected to drug trafficking based on Grays’ sparse employment history,

his recent crack sale to the CI, and the incredibility of Keaira Grays’ testimony. That

evidence amply supportsthe conclusion that the conversion helped to reflect the scale

of Grays' underlying drug trafficking offense more accurately, which is all the

guidelines require.

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

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