Opinion ID: 1188895
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Billue's Guideline sentence

Text: Guideline § 5G1.1(b) provides that [w]here a statutorily required minimum sentence is greater than the maximum of the applicable guideline range, the statutorily required minimum sentence shall be the guideline sentence.  U.S.S.G. § 5G1.1(b) (emphasis added). See United States v. Byers, 561 F.3d 825, 826-27, 829 (8th Cir.2009) (Section 5G1.1(b) of the Guidelines mandates that the statutory minimum becomes the Guidelines range if the statutory minimum is greater than the otherwise applicable Guidelines range. . . . The ultimate `guidelines range' [is] identical [to] the statutory mandatory minimum.); United States v. Trobee, 551 F.3d 835, 839 (8th Cir.2009) (explaining that pursuant to § 5G1.1(b), [f]or those situations in which the mandatory minimum exceeds the range for the entire offense level, the `guideline sentence' would . . . be the same as the `guideline range,' even if it involves a `range' of only one number (quotation omitted)). In Billue's case, the statutory minimum of 240 months was greater than the maximum of his otherwise-applicable Guidelines range of 151-188 months. Therefore, pursuant to § 5G1.1(b), 240 months became his Guideline sentence. When the district court correctly used the statutory minimum sentence as the starting point for applying the downward departure, then, it also  necessarily  used Billue's Guideline sentence as that starting point. There is no basis in the law for Billue's notion that the district court had discretion to elect, instead, to apply the downward departure to the Guideline range that would have applied to him in the absence of the mandatory minimum sentence.