Opinion ID: 623887
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Reliable Evidence

Text: Lucas next argues that the district court erred by sentencing him based on facts it failed to find by a preponderance of the evidence. Sentencing courts have discretion to draw conclusions about the testimony given and evidence introduced at sentencing. United States v. England, 555 F.3d 616, 622 (7th Cir.2009). Due process requires that sentencing determinations be based on reliable evidence, rather than speculation or unfounded allegations. United States v. Santiago, 495 F.3d 820, 824 (7th Cir.2007). Evidence will satisfy this requirement if it bears sufficient indicia of reliability to support its probable accuracy. Id. (internal quotation marks and punctuation omitted). Generally, facts considered at sentencing must be proved by a preponderance of the evidence. England, 555 F.3d at 622. Lucas argues that the district court based its lengthy sentence on the sheer speculation that had CG answered the doorrather than his motherLucas would have kidnapped and harmed him. Lucas maintains that he only intended to scare CG, not kidnap or harm him, and thus there was insufficient evidence for the district court to punish him on this basis. Moreover, Lucas argues that, in any event, the district court failed to find that Lucas would have kidnapped CG by a preponderance of the evidence. In support of this contention, Lucas points to a number of statements the district court made when discussing the egregious facts of the case. For example, the district court stated, I don't know what would have happened had someone else answered the door. (Sent. Tr. at 27.) Because the district court did not know what would have happened, Lucas posits, it failed to find that he intended to kidnap CG by a preponderance of the evidence. Lucas's argument is unavailing. It was not speculation that Lucas wanted to kidnap CG; there were an abundance of facts supporting this finding. Lucas told others that he planned to kill CG, he paid someone $500 to learn CG's home address, he removed the emergency-release latch from the trunk of his car so that CG would have no means of escape, he drove to CG's home armed with an entire arsenal, and he pointed a gun at CG's mother's face after demanding to see CG. Certainly, these facts allowed the district court to infer that Lucas intended to do more than simply scare CG. Lucas conflates the worry of the district court that Lucas planned to kill CG with the court's finding that Lucas attempted to kidnap CG. Some of the facts, especially those contested by Lucas at sentencing, suggested that Lucas may have planned to kill CG and bury his body in the holes Lucas prepared outside his home in Massachusetts. This thought deeply disturbed the district court, which is why it reiterated that it did not know what would have happened had CG answered the door. But the court made clear that it was not basing its sentence on this speculative possibility, stating that it was almost beside the point whether [the holes in the cave near Lucas's home] are graves. (Sent. Tr. at 10.) Rather, what influenced the court's decision, and what the district court found by a preponderance of the evidence, was that Lucas attempted to kidnap CG. As we discussed above, the district court went so far as to find that Lucas completed all the steps he believed reasonably necessary to complete the underlying offense of kidnapping. The court did not rely on speculation in sentencing Lucas.