Opinion ID: 820508
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Substantial Risk of Harm

Text: Wells argues that the district court erred in applying Guidelines enhancement § 2D1.1(b)(13)(C)(ii) for creating a substantial risk of harm to human life. The substantial-risk-of-harm enhancement applies when “the offense involved the manufacture of amphetamine or methamphetamine and the offense created a substantial risk of harm to (I) human life . . . .” U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(b)(13)(C)(ii). Application Note 18(B) to § 2D1.1 provides that the “court shall include consideration of” several enumerated factors when determining “whether the offense created a substantial risk of harm to human life or the environment[.]” Although not an exclusive list, United States v. Pinnow, 469 F.3d 1153, 1157 (8th Cir. 2006), these factors include: the quantity of chemicals found at the laboratory, the manner in which the chemicals were stored and disposed of, the duration and extent of the manufacturing operation, the location of the laboratory (residential or remote), and the number of human lives placed at risk. At sentencing, the district court explained its rationale for imposing the substantial-risk-of-harm enhancement: All right. I understand the argument altogether, but I also heard the evidence, paid very close attention to the evidence about this, the explosion that occurred at the time of the arrest, and I find beyond a reasonable doubt that there was an explosion that did occur in this case due to the mishandling of the meth lab, and it occurred when the lab was disposed down the drain of the sink in the premises where the arrest took place. The Court finds also based on the evidence that an explosion actually occurred in this case, that the Defendant’s conduct did, in fact, create a substantial risk of harm to human life. In the Court’s view the Defendant himself is very fortunate that the meth lab didn’t explode and cause severe injury or death to him. -12- Although the substantial-risk-of-harm enhancement “does not automatically apply to every offense involving methamphetamine manufacture[,]” Pinnow, 469 F.3d at 1156, the record in this case supports the district court’s application of the enhancement. Several of the government’s witnesses testified about the risk of explosion involved with the shake and bake method of manufacturing methamphetamine, a risk well demonstrated by the explosion of Wells’s methamphetamine lab and the harm and fire resulting therefrom. Further, Wells conducted his meth lab operation in a residential area, where the risk of harm to human life is greater than in a remote, less populated area. Given these circumstances, the evidence was sufficient to support the district court’s application of the substantial-risk-of-harm enhancement.