Opinion ID: 597808
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Adjusted Offense Level of 38

Text: 82 In addition, we have difficulty with the PSR's final upward adjustment of offense level from 36 to 38 pursuant to Guidelines § 2D1.1(b)(1) on the ground that, in connection with the narcotics conspiracy, Frias possessed weapons. Though United States v. Patterson, 947 F.2d 635, might appear at first blush to sanction this increase, we conclude that it does not. In Patterson, the defendant had been convicted of three narcotics offenses and a firearms offense, the latter arising out of the narcotics activity. Pursuant to 1990 Guidelines § 3D1.2 the sentencing court grouped the gun conviction with the three narcotics convictions in order to determine the base offense level; it then made a two-level upward adjustment for possession of the gun. We approved the sentence, stating that although [s]uperficially, this is arguably double-counting, not all double-counting is prohibited. Id. at 637. We can see the validity of adding a weapons-use increase where, as in Patterson, the weapons conviction carried a lower offense level than the narcotics convictions, and the former was subsumed in the latter for purposes of grouping at the higher level. But in the present case, the final increase brings the calculation full circle. Frias was convicted only of weapons offenses; they were not grouped with narcotics offenses, because there were no narcotics convictions. The narcotics base offense level entered the picture here only through the cross-references designed to ensure that the offense level for the weapons offenses adequately reflected the seriousness of the weapons offenses. To add to the narcotics offense level, chosen only to reflect the circumstances of the weapons offenses, an increment for possessing weapons is tantamount to adding an increase on the basis that the defendant possessed weapons in the course of possessing weapons. This constitutes impermissible double-counting, and we cannot conclude that the Guidelines authorized it. 83 Accordingly, we conclude that Frias's total offense level under the Guidelines should not have been more than 36. Thus, even if the district court decides not to depart downward from level 36 as discussed in the previous section, it should reconsider the sentence to be imposed on Frias, using a base offense level of 36 rather than 38.