Opinion ID: 532591
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Consideration of the Recovered Weapon at Sentencing

Text: 44 Mr. Rush finally submits that the weapon recovered from his car ought not to have been considered in assessing his sentence. He submits that he did not utilize the gun in any manner in the commission of the offenses for which he was convicted. Furthermore, he notes the gun was recovered from a car parked a considerable distance from where he was apprehended. 45 Section 2D1.1(b)(1) of the Sentencing Guidelines provides for an increase of two levels when a firearm or dangerous weapon was possessed during the commission of a drug offense. The commentary to section 2D1.1 notes that: 46 The enhancement for weapon possession reflects the increased danger of violence when drug traffickers possess weapons. The adjustment should be applied if the weapon was present, unless it is clearly improbable that the weapon was connected with the offense. 47 Section 2D1.1, Application Note 3. Noting that the defendant and Ramirez were proceeding toward the car at the time of their arrest, the district court concluded: 48 [the] gun was in that car and narcotics were in that suitcase, and that means, in my view, the firearm will be possessed or is possessed by the defendant in the commission of the offense. The offense is possession with intent to distribute. I don't think it makes any difference whether they arrested him when he was sitting in the car or whether they arrested him on his way to the car from the station. 49 Tr. at 220-21. 50 We must give due deference to the district court's determination that the defendant possessed the weapon at the time of the offense. See 18 U.S.C. Sec. 3742(e) (The court of appeals ... shall give due deference to the district court's application of the guidelines to the facts.). Here, there is a solid foundation for the district court's determination. The car, equipped with the loaded weapon, was, as the district court implied, an essential part of the crime of possession with intent to distribute--a crime that, had it not been interrupted, would have continued through the very use of the car. The charged conspiracy also involved the weapon-outfitted car. Indeed, the car was an essential tool of the conspiracy--a conspiracy in which the defendant had the comfort of knowing that a loaded weapon was close at hand.