Opinion ID: 2978565
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Cocaine base calculation

Text: Fenderson first asserts that the district court erred when it used estimated weights to determine the amount of crack cocaine (cocaine base) that should be used to calculate his advisory guideline range. Fenderson alleges that the evidence demonstrates that his co-conspirators routinely over-estimated the quantity of drugs being sold and that the rule of lenity should have been applied to arrive at a lower quantity. A district court’s determination related to drug-quantity is a factual finding that we review for clear error. United States v. Sandridge, 385 F.3d 1032, 1037 (6th Cir. 2004). If there are no means to determine the exact amount of drugs, “an estimate will suffice, but ... a preponderance of the evidence must support the estimate.” United States v. Walton, 908 F.2d 1289, 1302 (6th Cir. 1990); United States v. Hernandez, 227 F.3d 686, 699 (6th Cir. 2000) (“Approximations are completely appropriate.”). With respect to cocaine base, Fenderson challenges only one calculation by the district court, an estimate related to an occasion when Horatio Young was “cooking” cocaine base on behalf of Fenderson. Trial testimony indicated that Young was cooking 2.25 ounces of powder cocaine and expected it to yield “like, three ounces” of cocaine base. Fenderson asserts that the estimates given by his co-conspirators were routinely 23% higher than later laboratory weights. Fenderson, therefore, concludes that the district court should have reduced the 2.25 ounces by at least 23% prior to converting the ounces into grams. Fenderson, however, ignores that the district court’s estimate was already a conservative one. As noted, the defendants believed that cooking the 2.25 ounces -3- No. 07-4482 United States v. Fenderson would lead to at least 3 ounces of cocaine base. Instead of using that larger number, the district court chose to use only the 2.25 ounces that were present prior to any cooking. If this Court were to apply Fenderson’s proposed 23% reduction, it would appropriately apply to the 3 ounce estimate of cocaine base, not the 2.25 ounce estimate for powder cocaine. Performing that calculation would result in a finding of 2.31 ounces of cocaine base, a number larger than that used by the district court. This Court, therefore, finds no merit in Fenderson’s argument regarding cocaine base.