Opinion ID: 2977371
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sentencing Facts

Text: White was the driver of the getaway car in a Kentucky bank robbery. Two other people entered the bank and absconded with $101,000 after one of them threateningly discharged a firearm inside the bank without injuring anyone. White did not enter the bank or use a weapon. One of the robbers thereafter discharged a firearm from the car driven by White during the course of an extended high-speed police chase. White was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit armed bank robbery; one count of armed bank robbery; one count of conspiracy to use and carry a firearm in relation to a bank robbery; two counts of aiding and abetting the use and discharge of a firearm; and one count of possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He was convicted only of aiding and abetting armed bank robbery and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. He was acquitted on the other four counts. Although rejecting White’s defense of duress, the jury acquitted him of Count 1, charging him with conspiracy to rob the bank. More importantly for purposes of this case, the jury acquitted him of Counts 3, 4, and 5, charging respectively a conspiracy to use and carry a firearm and two substantive counts of aiding and abetting the “using, carrying, brandishing and discharging” of a firearm in the robbery. In other words, White was convicted of bank robbery but acquitted of all counts charging him with the use of weapons in connection with the robbery. Despite the acquittal of the use-ofweapons charges, the sentencing judge increased the sentence as though the jury had found White guilty of these weapons charges. The parties agree that White’s base offense level was 20 with no prior criminal record, an offense level carrying a recommended sentencing range of 33 to 41 months in prison. The jury found that a financial institution was robbed, triggering a two-level increase, and that more than $50,000 but less than $250,000 was taken, triggering another two-level increase, bringing the offense level to 24 (carrying a recommended No. 05-6596 United States v. White Page 12 sentence range of 51 to 63 months). These findings were a part of the jury verdict, and White does not challenge them or the resulting calculations. In addition, based on the jury verdict rejecting White’s testimony that he was forced to participate in the robbery, the sentencing judge increased the offense level by two levels for perjury, from level 24 to level 26. The judge also found that the extended police chase during which White drove the car through a road block and then crashed the car into another police road block endangered lives and deserved an additional twolevel increase, bringing the offense level up to 28, which carries a recommended sentencing range of 78 to 97 months. The two-level enhancement for perjury is implicit in the jury’s verdict rejecting White’s testimony that he was forced or coerced into participating in the bank robbery as a getaway driver. The jury could not have reached its verdict if it had believed White’s testimony. Thus, the perjury adjustment is based on a jury finding. During his testimony, White expressly admitted that he drove the car in a high-speed police chase (as the previous panel of our court found) “ending when White crashed his car into a road block, and the car burst into flames.” White’s challenge to his sentence stems from the additional ten-level increase found by the sentencing judge: a seven-level increase imposed by the sentencing judge for aiding in another robber’s discharge of a weapon inside the bank — a specific charge in the conspiracy and substantive counts that the jury acquitted him of — and a threelevel increase for aiding another robber in firing “at least two gunshots at a pursuing police car” — another specific charge for which White was acquitted. The resulting offense level of 38 carried a recommended sentencing range of 235 to 293 months, and the judge sentenced White to 264 months, or 22 years. The two judicial upward adjustments for acquitted charges account for approximately 14 years of the 22-year sentence. No. 05-6596 United States v. White Page 13