Opinion ID: 12447
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Quantity of Cocaine (Morgan)

Text: The district court assigned Morgan a base offense level of 34, the offense level under the guidelines for 50 to 150 grams of crack. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(4). Morgan challenges the quantity range under which he was sentenced, complaining of the district court’s failure to find a specific gram amount attributable to him. The district court found that “even if you exclude some of it, you’re still above the 50 level.” The better practice would be to make a specific finding of the quantity of cocaine attributable to a defendant. Failure to do so, however, is not reversible if a finding within the sentencing range is not clearly erroneous. See United States v. Castillo, 77 F.3d 1480, 1495 (5th Cir.)(holding that the district court’s finding that “at least 1000 kilograms” were attributable to the defendant was “clearly adequate and 21 sufficiently specific” to comply with U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3), cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 180 (1996); see also U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 comment. (n. 12)(the sentencing judge may “approximate the quantity” of the controlled substance if no drug seizure occurred); Basinger, 60 F.3d at 1410; United States v. Chatman, 994 F.2d 1510, 1516-17 (10th Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 883, 114 S. Ct. 230 (1993). The district court’s finding that the amount of crack attributable to Morgan was more than 50 grams was not clearly erroneous. Stuart testified that he sold Morgan 60 grams of crack cocaine in one transaction alone. We are not persuaded by Morgan’s argument that the evidence associated with this amount bears insufficient indicia of reliability to support his sentence.