Opinion ID: 1288101
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The First Sentencing Proceeding

Text: In preparation for Mr. Hollins' initial sentencing hearing, the Government prepared its version of the offense. It maintained that, although the evidence at trial addressed only three particular runs to Jamaica (the Reynolds trip, the Stewart trip and the Clemons trip), the conspiracy actually involved at least six trips and significantly higher amounts of cocaine than the Government had attempted to prove at trial. In support of its position that Mr. Hollins should be sentenced on the basis of transactions involving roughly twelve kilos of cocaine, the Government attached numerous documents to its sentencing memorandum. [1] These documents included the reports of interviews with five individuals involved in the conspiracy, plea agreements entered by several of Mr. Hollins' co-defendants (Clemons, Dixon, McDonald, Reynolds and Stewart), lab reports documenting drug quantities and testimony from related state court proceedings. One of these documents was a record of the statement a woman named Annette Addison had made to United States Customs officials in September 1998. According to that record, Addison stated that, beginning in 1992 or 1993, she went on several trips out of the country on behalf of the Hollins-Wilson conspiracy and eventually became a recruiter who located, for a finder's fee, additional couriers for Mr. Hollins and Wilson. She testified generally on the operations of the scheme and described it in a manner consistent with the testimony others had provided about the mechanics of travel and about the dealings in Jamaica. She also specifically stated that, in 1996, she had traveled with McKinley Williams and Angela Butler and had attempted to return with wine bottles containing liquid cocaine (the Addison II trip). She stated that Wilson had made the arrangements and had provided Addison with $65,000 to purchase the cocaine. On arriving at the airport back in the United States, Williams passed through customs without incident, but Addison and Butler were stopped and the contents of their wine bottles discovered. At her own state court trial arising out of this trip, Addison had testified in her own defense: She contended that she had gone to Jamaica only on vacation and did not know that the wine bottles she carried contained liquid cocaine. The statement introduced at Mr. Hollins' sentencing, in which she admitted her involvement and provided the relevant details, was obtained during a meeting with customs officials subsequent to her conviction. The Government also introduced evidence of two additional trips. The first, apparently taken in early 1995 by two other women whom Addison had recruited (the Addison I trip), involved a smuggling method similar to that used in the Reynolds trip. The second apparently involved Williams, who had traveled alone on a different occasion and returned with liquid cocaine (the Williams trip). In addition to producing this supplemental drug quantity evidence, the Government maintained that Mr. Hollins should receive a four-level enhancement for his role as a leader or organizer. See U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a). The presentence report adopted the Government's version of the offense, including the drug quantity to be attributed to Mr. Hollins, and recommended that the district court apply the leader or organizer enhancement. In his response, Mr. Hollins offered no direct objections to the drug quantity calculations. Instead, he contended that, under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), the district court could not impose a sentence based on drug quantities other than those proven to the jury beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. Because the jury had found him guilty of the attempt charge on the Reynolds trip alone, Mr. Hollins believed the 765 grams of cocaine involved in that incident placed a ceiling on his drug quantity liability at sentencing. The district court rejected Mr. Hollins' contentions. It found that, based on the evidence adduced at trial and the Government's additions at sentencing, Mr. Hollins' relevant conduct encompassed offenses involving in excess of five kilograms of cocaine. The court also applied a four-level organizer or leader enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a), and sentenced him to 188 months' imprisonment, the low end of the applicable guidelines range. Mr. Hollins appealed his sentence to this court. He maintained his challenge, on Apprendi grounds, that the district court's fact-finding and resultant imposition of a mandatory guidelines sentence was unconstitutional. Because Mr. Hollins had preserved this objection and because the Government could not demonstrate successfully that the district court's error was harmless, this court vacated the sentence and remanded for re-sentencing consistent with the dictates of Booker.