Opinion ID: 2708559
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Luis Garcia

Text: Luis Garcia (whom we call Luis to differentiate him from Vicente Garcia) was another Inca. He pleaded guilty without a plea bargain to one count of participating in the RICO conspiracy and one count of conspiring to distribute cocaine; he was sentenced to concurrent terms of 240 months on the RICO count and 60 months on the drug count, to be followed by four years’ supervised release. On appeal, he raises a number of challenges to this sentence. Use of Conspiracy To Commit Murder Guideline. As we have noted, the guideline applicable to RICO is § 2E1.1. It sets a 42 Nos. 11-3179 et al. base offense level of either 19 or the level applicable to the underlying racketeering activity. Luis contends that the highest base offense level that can apply to him is the one found in § 2D1.1, the guideline governing a drug distribution conspiracy; the government argued that the proper referent was § 2A1.5, covering conspiracy to commit murder. The district court adopted the government’s position. It found that the use of murder as a tool to maintain the gang’s reputation, protect its territory, and further its drug trade was foreseeable to Luis when he joined the conspiracy. Luis now argues that there was insufficient evidence to show that he either directly participated in acts of murder or violence, or that he could foresee that other Latin Kings would do such things. When he pleaded guilty, he admitted only to drug dealing as a factual basis for the plea. To be held accountable for the conduct of others at sentencing, “that conduct must have been both in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity and reasonably foreseeable in connection with that criminal activity.” United States v. Edwards, 115 F.3d 1322, 1327 (7th Cir. 1997) (citing U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 n.2). Luis was an active participant in the Latin Kings’ activities, both as a drug distributor and as an Inca. The questions are thus whether the conspiracy to commit murder was in furtherance of the activities jointly undertaken by gang members, and whether it was foreseeable to him. The district court had ample evidence pointing to affirmative answers. The Latin Kings’ constitution and the Little Village Rules expressly contemplated violence, up to and including homicide. During the trial of the other defendants, witnesses testified that the rules meant that Latin Kings members would Nos. 11-3179 et al. 43 “kill you, bottom line” if you entered their territory. Traffic violators—especially speeders—were to be shot as they drove through. Luis’s duties as an Inca included protecting his territory, and that protection foreseeably led to acts of attempted or actual murder. It does not matter that there was no evidence that he pulled a trigger. Manager or Supervisor. Luis received a three-level increase in his offense level pursuant to § 3B1.1(b) for being a supervisor or manager (but not an organizer or leader) of the criminal activity. The district court did not clearly err in so characterizing his role. As we have noted, the key question is whether the defendant holds a managerial or supervisory position in a hierarchical organization; the labels do not matter. United States v. Figueroa, 682 F.3d 694, 697 (7th Cir. 2012). The Latin Kings constitution and the various rules spell out the role of the Incas; Luis was an Inca and thus led a chapter. That is enough in our view to support the district court’s finding. Conditional Discharge. The district court added two criminal history points to Luis’s score when it was calculating his guidelines range because he was on conditional discharge when he committed the offense of conviction. See U.S.S.G. § 4A1.1(d). He had pleaded guilty to state charges of battery and served a term of supervised release between July 12, 2001 and July 12, 2003. On the assumption (not indulged by the district court) that his association with the Latin Kings began in 2007, Luis argues that it was error to make this adjustment. In fact, other evidence in the record showed that Luis’s history with the Latin Kings long predated the years covered by the federal indictment. Luis himself told the probation 44 Nos. 11-3179 et al. officer who prepared his PSR that he was “beaten in” to the Latin Kings in 1995. The indictment charged that the RICO conspiracy began in January 2000. The government used Luis’s admission to show that he was a member of that conspiracy before July 2003, when his conditional discharge ended. The fact that he may have joined the drug distribution conspiracy later does not undermine the district court’s use of this adjustment. Luis presented a number of other arguments. They include the same complaints as King makes about the consistency of judicial factfinding by a preponderance of the evidence with the Fifth and Sixth Amendments, and objections to the use of the preponderance standard to find facts relevant to the guidelines calculations, the disparity between his sentence and those of some of his codefendants, and the district court’s refusal to grant him a three-point reduction in his offense level for acceptance of responsibility. We find no merit in any of these points: they are barred either by the law, or by the fact that the district court’s decisions were not clearly erroneous.