Opinion ID: 778825
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Adoption of Findings of Fact from the PSR

Text: 27 The first possibility is that the district court adopted the quarter-ounce estimate directly from the PSR. If it did so, the court's finding cannot be sustained. Although the court may adopt the factual findings of the presentence report ... [i]t may not ... adopt conclusory statements unsupported by facts or the Guidelines. United States v. Navarro, 979 F.2d 786, 789 (9th Cir.1992); see United States v. Garcia-Sanchez, 189 F.3d 1143, 1149 (9th Cir.1999) (reversing estimate of conspiracy's weekly drug sales where government offered only agent's unexplained conclusions that did not contain sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy). The PSR contained only a conclusory statement that the average transaction size was one quarter of an ounce. The factual underpinning for that assertion, if any, was not explained. Rather, the PSR promised that the government plans to present testimony to the Court at the time of sentencing that ... an average of a quarter-ounce of marijuana was distributed per transaction. The government failed to deliver on that promise.