Opinion ID: 598763
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Extreme Conduct

Text: 4 Merculieff argues the district court erred by departing upward from the appropriate Guidelines range for extreme conduct pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 5K2.8. We disagree. Here, Merculieff and his codefendant, Longtree, followed the victim, Harvey Wise Spirit, to a wooded area, where they punched and kicked him while he cried for help and for mercy, offered them his watch and a check for a thousand dollars. Merculieff also jumped on Wise Spirit and grabbed him by the hair and chin and tried to break his neck. The defendants then hit Wise Spirit on the head with a four-foot length of telephone post until his face was obliterated, rolled his body to take five dollars from his pocket, took his beer and left. Longtree then returned and jumped on Wise Spirit until he urinated and defecated on himself. The defendants followed him originally, they said, to get his beer. They did not plan to murder him. 5 The Guidelines explicitly authorize an upward departure for extreme conduct. Moreover, the record amply supported the finding that Merculieff's conduct was extreme. Thus, we discern no clear error. Finally, we see no abuse of discretion in the extent of the departure, which increased appellant's exposure from 108-135 months to 151-188 months. See Lira-Barraza, 941 F.2d at 751.