Source: https://casetext.com/case/us-v-mir-3
Timestamp: 2019-10-18 16:24:10
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United States v. Mir, 919 F.2d 940 | Casetext
919 F.2d 940 (5th Cir. 1990)
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth CircuitDec 11, 1990
U.S. v. Eastland
This contention is foreclosed by a clarifying amendment to the guidelines, effective November 1, 1990, and by…
In determining a defendant's sentence, a district court may consider "relevant conduct," which includes…
holding that where defendant did not offer any rebuttal evidence to refute presentence report, "district court . . . was free to adopt facts in PSI without further inquiry"
holding that the Court may adopt the facts as presented by probation in the PSR without further inquiry when defendant objects to them but offers no rebuttal evidence
Summary of this case from United States v. Acevedo
recognizing that any unadjudicated conduct considered in determining sentence must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence
The court calculated Mir's offense level at 20, with four points added for Mir's role as a leader of the conspirators. On appeal, he asserts that the court erred by considering extraneous conduct in setting his base offense level and that the court could not give him a four-point upward adjustment for his leadership role because the count to which he pleaded guilty involved him alone. Finding no error, we affirm.
In the presentence investigation report ("PSI"), the probation officer stated that Mir and Alfredo Barbontin controlled a cocaine distribution network comprised of Cuban expatriates. The PSI also described several undercover agents' purchases of cocaine from that organization. These narcotics transactions included two additional sales to Wade conducted personally by Mir. Including the sale to which Mir pleaded guilty, total sales personally conducted by Mir totaled 100.38 grams.
For further information on the activities of Mir and his codefendants, see United States v. Barbontin, 907 F.2d 1494 (5th Cir. 1990).
The probation officer recommended a base offense level of 20 based upon a total of 231.30 grams of cocaine sold to the undercover agents by Mir and his codefendants. See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(a)(3). In addition, he recommended a four-level upward adjustment on the ground that Mir was a leader or organizer of the narcotics conspiracy. See id. § 3B1.1(a). The sentencing range for a level 24 offense for a category I defendant such as Mir with no criminal history is 51 to 63 months.
As for the first argument, Mir does not dispute that the court could consider offenses beyond those of which he had been convicted. Rather, Mir contests the factual determination that he was involved in the sale of more than 200 grams of cocaine. We will reverse this factual determination only if it is clearly erroneous. See, e.g., United States v. Sarasti, 869 F.2d 805, 806 (5th Cir. 1989); United States v. Buenrostro, 868 F.2d 135, 137 (5th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 1957, 109 L.Ed.2d 319 (1990). Any unadjudicated conduct considered in determining sentence must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. McMillan v. Pennsylvania, 477 U.S. 79, 91, 106 S.Ct. 2411, 2418-19, 91 L.Ed.2d 67 (1986).
The district court set Mir's base offense level at 20, which covers defendants who distribute between 200 and 300 grams of cocaine. See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(12). In arriving at level 20, the district court determined that Mir and his coconspirators had sold at least 231.30 grams of cocaine.
The district court correctly could consider more than the twenty-seven grams mentioned in Mir's plea agreement. Under the guidelines, the base offense level can reflect quantities of drugs not specified in the count of conviction if they "were part of the same course of conduct or part of a common scheme or plan as the count of conviction." United States v. Taplette, 872 F.2d 101, 105 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 128, 107 L.Ed.2d 88 (1989); see U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3. Here, the facts as detailed in the PSI established that Mir was involved in a drug conspiracy and that, as part of the conspiracy, he and his codefendants distributed 231.30 grams of cocaine in ten separate transactions.
The government asserts that the district court did indeed miscalculate the base offense level but that this error benefited Mir. Specifically, it contends that Mir's proper base offense level should have been set at 26 to include the kilogram he discussed selling to Agent Wade. We note, however, that the conversation between Wade and Mir was sufficiently vague to make it difficult to determine whether Mir's quotation of a price could constitute negotiations to traffic in a controlled substance under § 2D1.4. We need not address this issue now, however, as the government has not taken a cross-appeal and does not ask us to vacate and remand so that the district court may begin its calculations at offense level 26.
Finally, we note that although Mir objected to his PSI at certain points, he offered no rebuttal evidence to refute any of these facts. The district court therefore was free to adopt the facts in the PSI without further inquiry. United States v. Mueller, 902 F.2d 336, 346 (5th Cir. 1990). The conclusion that Mir was involved in the distribution of at least 200 grams of cocaine thus is not in error.
Mir also contends that the PSI contains hearsay, but hearsay is admissible at sentencing. United States v. Byrd, 898 F.2d 450, 452-53 (5th Cir. 1990).
Section 3B1.1(a) of the guidelines provides for a four-level upward adjustment "[b]ased on the defendant's role . . . [as] an organizer or leader of a criminal activity that involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive." The district court assessed this adjustment after finding, based upon the PSI and Harr's testimony, that Mir was an organizer in a complex distribution organization.
We review the district court's fact-finding regarding Mir's status as an organizer only for clear error. See United States v. Rodriguez, 897 F.2d 1324, 1325 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 111 S.Ct. 158, 112 L.Ed.2d 124 (1990). Both Harr's testimony and the facts developed in the PSI reveal that Mir was a leader or organizer of a narcotics ring consisting of more than five persons, including Mir's two sons, Victor and Virgilio, his grandson, Felix Orta, and at least three other individuals, i.e., Luis Cantu, Julia Castro Hammond, and Enrique Bernal.
We note that this is not the first time we have visited this issue or, for that matter, this very cocaine distribution ring. In Barbontin we confronted a drug conspiracy involving at least ten persons. At sentencing, however, the government failed to show that five or more of them were involved in the actual transaction leading to Barbontin's indictment and plea bargain. 907 F.2d at 1497. We thus vacated and remanded for resentencing.
See Barbontin; United States v. Hammond, 912 F.2d 1466 (5th Cir. 1990) (unpublished); United States v. Mir, 903 F.2d 825 (5th Cir. 1990) (unpublished); United States v. Ponce, 917 F.2d 841 (5th Cir.) (unpublished), modified on rehearing, 917 F.2d 846 (5th Cir. 1990).
Barbontin established that in this circuit, under section 3B1.1, the government cannot delve into unrelated transactions in an attempt to round up the requisite number of conspirators. We thus held that "for purposes of measuring the size of the enterprise, we conclude that section 3B1.1(a) focuses upon the number of transactional participants, which can be inferentially calculated provided that the court does not look beyond the offense of conviction to enlarge the class of participants." Id. at 1498 (emphasis in original). We also held that the section 3B1.1(a) adjustment must be anchored to the transaction leading to the conviction. Id.
Accord United States v. Mourning, 914 F.2d 699, 705 (5th Cir. 1990) ("The court may only apply this aggravating factor if the defendant maintained a leadership role in the transaction on which his conviction is based."); United States v. Williams, 891 F.2d 921, 926 (D.C. Cir. 1989); United States v. Lanese, 890 F.2d 1284, 1293-94 (2d Cir. 1989), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 2207, 109 L.Ed.2d 533 (1990).
We did not hold, however, that a trial court must don blinders and look solely to the narrowest possible offense charged when evaluating whether an upward adjustment is warranted under the guidelines. It is well established that the "district court can consider a broad range of conduct in assessing a defendant's offense level under the guidelines and is not limited solely to the conduct for which the defendant is being sentenced." United States v. Edwards, 911 F.2d 1031, 1033 (5th Cir. 1990). This is a position supported by the guidelines, which explicitly state in their general application principles that "[i]n many instances, it will be appropriate that the court consider the actual conduct of the offender, even when such conduct does not constitute an element of the offense."
Our recent opinion in United States v. Manthei, 913 F.2d 1130 (5th Cir. 1990), clarifies this analysis. There, the defendant was charged with conspiracy to distribute amphetamines. All charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement, save a single count charging Manthei with the distribution of two ounces of amphetamines. Id. at 1132. The court nonetheless increased Manthei's offense level for her role as a leader in the conspiracy underlying her distribution count.
Although Manthei made the same arguments urged upon us by Mir in this case, we nonetheless affirmed the trial court's calculation of her offense level. We first noted that it was not dispositive that she was the only person involved in the offense charged. Because there was extensive evidence that she was involved in other elements of the distributive chain, we held that the district court properly increased her offense level under section 3B1.1. Id. at 1135. We also noted that "the `offense' for § 3B1.1(a) purposes includes `criminal activity' greater in scope than the exact, or more limited, activity comprising the elements of the offense charged." Id.
The defendant in Manthei, like Mir in the present case, had read Barbontin as defining transactional participant so narrowly as to preclude any examination of the context of the crime beyond the minimal elements necessary for conviction. We rejected that interpretation and noted that where the government has carried its burden of showing that the adjustment was "`anchored to the transaction leading to the conviction,'" id. at 1136-37 (quoting Barbontin, 907 F.2d at 1498), "it is not necessary for participants to be charged in the offense in order to be considered for § 3B1.1(a) purposes." Id. at 1137.
The determination of a defendant's role in the offense is to be made on the basis of all conduct within the scope of section 1B1.3 (Relevant Conduct), i.e., all conduct included under section 1B1.3(a)(1)(4), and not solely on the basis of elements and acts cited in the count of conviction.
U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1 introductory commentary (emphasis added). The application note adds that "[i]n assessing whether an organization is `otherwise extensive,' all persons involved during the course of the entire offense are to be considered." (Emphasis added.). This language shows that section 3B1.1 is intended to comport with other guidelines sections allowing a sentencing judge to look beyond the narrow confines of the offense charged to consider all relevant conduct.
For example, in United States v. Mejia-Orosco, 867 F.2d 216 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 109 S.Ct. 3257, 106 L.Ed.2d 602 (1989), we affirmed an upward adjustment based upon § 3B1.1 where the defendant had acted alone in committing the offense charged. In doing so, we stated, "[t]he undisputed evidence that relatives of the aliens were involved in the crime provides sufficient support for this factual finding." Id. at 222. The relatives, however, were not named in the offense charged. Similarly, in United States v. Garza, 884 F.2d 181 (5th Cir. 1989), we affirmed an erroneous upward-departure sentence on the ground that a properly calculated sentence would have increased Garza's sentence by four levels because of his role as its organizer or leader. Again, we looked beyond the offense charged to justify the application of § 3B1.1. Id. at 184.