Opinion ID: 77991
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: The Jasen Johns Death Enhancement as to Count One (Conspiracy) for Westry, Carter and Hinton

Text: As to applicability of the death enhancement to the conspiracy convictions of Westry, Carter and Hinton, we find no error. The guidelines for offenses charged under 21 U.S.C. § 846, the conspiracy count (Count One), are found at U.S.S.G. §§ 2D1.1 and 1D1.2. If a defendant is convicted for conspiracy to violate 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(A), the offense of conviction establishes that death or serious bodily injury resulted from use of the illegal substance, and the defendant committed the offense after one or more prior convictions for a similar offense, section 2D1.1(a)(1) of the Sentencing Guidelines sets the base offense level at 43, or life. See also 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). [11] In determining the base level of the charged offense, the district court must consider as relevant all conduct actually undertaken by, or taken at the direction of, the defendant, § 1B1.3(a)(1)(A), and in the case of a conspiracy, all acts by other participants that were both reasonably foreseeable and in furtherance of the conspiracy, § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). United States v. Matthews, 168 F.3d 1234, 1247 (11th Cir.1999). Conspirators are certainly `only accountable for [co-conspirator] conduct that was reasonably foreseeable and within the scope of the criminal activity that the defendant agreed to undertake.' United States v. Chisholm, 73 F.3d 304, 308 (11th Cir.1996) (quoting United States v. Reese, 67 F.3d 902, 906-08 (11th Cir.1995)). Consequently, although a conspirator may reasonably foresee other criminal acts, he is not accountable for those acts if they were not part of the scope of the criminal activity he agreed to undertake. Id. (citing Reese, 67 F.3d at 907). The medical examiner's report introduced in evidence showed that Johns died at the Clay Street home on November 27, 2001 from an overdose caused by injecting methadone, with cocaine as a contributing factor. Prior to his death, Johns had frequently obtained drugs from the Clay Street home and from members of the charged conspiracy. Two of the drugs distributed during the course of the conspiracy included methadone and cocaine, and the jury specifically found these drugs were objects of the conspiracy. As to the cocaine, Johns' statements to Carpenter support the conclusion that Carter supplied Johns with the cocaine that contributed to Johns' death. Westry, however, supplied Carpenter with a place to stay, Westry's apartment, so Carpenter could spend the night after having injected methadone with Johns in the back room of the Clay Street home. Hinton was present in Westry's apartment that night. The issue presented is whether a death of one of the several addicts who purchased drugs at the Clay Street home was reasonably foreseeable to the conspirators. Where a conspirator is involved in distributing drugs to addicts, some of which are even administered intravenously, it is a reasonably foreseeable consequence that one or more of those addicts may overdose and die. See e.g., Spero v. United States, 375 F.3d 1285, 1286 (11th Cir.2004). It is of no moment that two of these conspirators, at the time of Johns' death, were not residents of the Clay Street home, as the evidence showed their activities to be linked to the activities of others at the Clay Street home, even on the night in question. Because Johns died from a drug overdose from drugs distributed by a member of the conspiracy (Carter), and the goal of the conspiracy was to distribute drugs, Johns' death was reasonably foreseeable and within the scope of the conspiracy. Therefore, we find no clear error in the jury's or trial court's conclusion that the death was reasonably foreseeable, or the trial court's application of the death enhancement to Count One as to Westry, Carter, and Hinton. [12]