Opinion ID: 784816
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Amount of cocaine attributed to Garner for sentencing purposes

Text: 70 Garner also claims that the district court erred during sentencing when it found that between 2 and 3.5 kilograms of cocaine were attributable to Garner's criminal conduct. He contends that the district court should have attributed to him an indeterminate amount of cocaine, which would have reduced his offense level from 28 to 12. 71 A district court's calculation of the amount of drugs attributed to a defendant must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Meacham, 27 F.3d 214, 216 (6th Cir.1994). We review the district court's calculation under the clearly erroneous standard. United States v. Walton, 908 F.2d 1289, 1300-01 (6th Cir.1990). 72 Pursuant to the United States Sentencing Guidelines, a defendant is liable for: 73 (A) all acts or omissions committed, aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, procured or willfully caused by the defendant; and 74 (B) in the case of a jointly undertaken criminal activity ..., all reasonably foreseeable acts and omissions of others in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity.... 75 Sentencing Guidelines § 1B1.3(a)(1). In the present case, the district court found that at least 2 kilograms but less than 3.5 kilograms of cocaine is properly attributed to Garner's personal and jointly undertaken criminal activity. The district court relied on the following evidence in reaching this conclusion: 76 (1) Intercepted cell phone conversations revealed that Garner was involved in drug trafficking along with Forest; 77 (2) Garner's conversations demonstrated that he acted as a broker between Forest and potential customers in one-kilogram cocaine transactions; 78 (3) In mid-May of 2001, a DEA informant ordered two kilograms of cocaine from Garner, who then communicated the order to Forest; 79 (4) On May 31, 2001, DEA agents observed Forest and Garner together for most of the day. Later that day Forest and Garner drove (in Garner's car) to pick up the drug couriers in Cleveland and transport them back to the Youngstown/Warren area; 80 (5) The couriers testified that they had brought four packages to Ohio: two kilogram-sized packages and two smaller ones; 81 (6) On June 1, 2001, Garner met with Forest and the couriers, then accompanied Forest to an office-supply store, where Forest purchased a digital scale; 82 (7) At approximately 7:51 p.m. on June 1, 2001, Garner told Jeffrey Davis that the cocaine would be gone soon and that any deal would have to be consummated the next day. The above evidence, recited by the district court in its sentencing memorandum, demonstrates that Garner had previously participated in the distribution of multiple kilograms of cocaine, that Forest and Garner participated in a joint effort to distribute two kilograms of cocaine to the DEA informant, and that they jointly transported three kilograms of cocaine in Garner's car on May 31, 2001. Attributing at least two kilograms of cocaine to Garner for the purposes of sentencing was therefore not clearly erroneous. 83