Opinion ID: 204046
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Correa-Alicea's Challenge to the Drug-Quantity Determination

Text: Correa-Alicea argues that the district court erroneously found that he was individually responsible for more than 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base. Relatedly, he challenges the admission of Agent Vidal-Gil's testimony, which he claims provided the basis for the court's drug-quantity determination. He argues that Vidal-Gil's testimony was unreliable and not based on recognized scientific techniques, and therefore was improperly admitted as expert testimony. The government responds that, even if Vidal-Gil's testimony was unreliable, an alternate calculation based on the stipulated quantities of cocaine base purchased in two controlled transactions adequately supports the district court's 4.5 kilogram finding. We agree with the government's contention. Because we conclude that the district court's drug-quantity determination is sufficiently supported by reliable evidence independent of Vidal-Gil's testimony, we need not reach the question of whether the district court erred in admitting Vidal-Gil's testimony. See Barnett, 989 F.2d at 553; see also Pizarro-Berríos, 448 F.3d at 8. At trial, the parties stipulated to the quantity of cocaine base recovered from each of two controlled purchases: on February 16, 2006, Colón-González purchased cocaine base with a net weight of 17.1 grams, and on May 4, 2006, Ortiz-Cruz purchased cocaine base with a net weight of 24.3 grams. [3] These controlled purchases were recorded on audio tape, and the audio recordings were admitted as evidence at trial. According to the testimony of Ortiz-Cruz and Colón-González, long-time residents of the housing project, Correa-Alicea was in charge of the drug point and was involved in the conspiracy from November 2005 until November 2006. The drug point operated for at least sixteen hours every day, and a large number of people visited the drug point daily. Based on this evidence, it is reasonable to conclude that, over the course of the year-long conspiracy, Correa-Alicea's drug point made at least one cocaine base sale per day in an amount comparable to the controlled purchases. Using the smaller controlled purchase of 17.1 grams as a sample, 6.2415 kilograms of cocaine base are reasonably attributable to Correa-Alicea over the one-year conspiracy (17.1 grams of cocaine base sold per day, multiplied by 365 days per year). Using the larger controlled purchase of 24.3 grams, he is accountable for 8.8695 kilograms (24.3 grams of cocaine base sold per day, multiplied by 365 days per year). Even the more conservative estimate of 6.24 kilograms is significantly more than the 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base attributed to Correa-Alicea by the district court. The court's finding as to drug quantity was not a mere hunch or intuition, see Marrero-Ortiz, 160 F.3d at 780, but was a reasoned estimate based on reliable evidence in the record. See Rodríguez, 525 F.3d at 107. Relying on our decision in Rivera-Maldonado, 194 F.3d 224, Correa-Alicea contends that the quantity of drugs purchased in the two controlled buys does not provide a reasonable basis for the district court's 4.5 kilogram finding, and asserts that any estimate of drug quantity based on these two buys would not have been arrived at in a scientifically sound and methodologically reliable manner. We disagree. In Rivera-Maldonado, we recognized that [g]enerally speaking, the smaller the sampling, the less reliable the resulting probability estimate, and an estimate of drug quantity may be unreliable if based on an extrapolation from too small a sample. Id. at 231. We held that it was improper for the sentencing court to estimate the average drug transaction size using a very small sample of controlled buys over the course of a six-month investigation. Id. at 233. The sampling in that case was minuscule, twelve controlled buys drawn from a set of 86,400 transactions (20 transactions per hour, times 24 hours per day, times 180 days), and there was no evidence that the twelve controlled buys were representative of ordinary drug transactions at the drug point. Id. at 231-32. Furthermore, the other estimates upon which the total drug-quantity finding was based, including the average number of transactions per hour and average operating hours per day, were also unreliable, and therefore the risk of error was compounded by pyramiding unreliable inferences. Id. at 233. We concluded that the sentencing court's drug-quantity determination was not based on sufficiently reliable information, and remanded the case for resentencing. Id. at 233; see also United States v. Culps, 300 F.3d 1069, 1078 (9th Cir.2002) (holding that an estimate of average drug quantity for 60,250 transactions based on nine controlled buys was statistically and legally unreliable); United States v. Butler, 41 F.3d 1435, 1447 (11th Cir.1995) (rejecting an estimate of sixty-six drug transactions per day based solely on a videotape of transactions occurring on a single day, where there was no evidence that single day was typical or average). In this case, however, the sample used for calculating average drug transaction size is proportionately much larger, and therefore more reliable, than in Rivera-Maldonado: two controlled buys drawn from a set of 365 transactions (one per day for a year), rather than twelve buys drawn from 86,400 transactions. Furthermore, unlike in Rivera-Maldonado, the other estimates upon which the total drug-quantity finding is based are reliable, even conservative. The estimate of one transaction per day, or 365 transactions per year, is highly conservative in light of testimony that the drug point operated for sixteen to seventeen hours per day, 365 days per year, and had a large number of customers daily. The district court's ultimate finding that Correa-Alicea was accountable for in excess of 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base is likewise conservative, given that even calculations based on the smaller of the two controlled buys would yield a figure of 6.24 kilograms. The court's finding, although not an exact determination of drug quantity, see Rodríguez, 525 F.3d at 107, is a reasonable estimate with demonstrable record support and adequate indicia of reliability. See Rivera-Maldonado, 194 F.3d at 229. [4] In sum, because there is clear record support for the district court's finding that Correa-Alicea was accountable for more than 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base during the charged conspiracy, we affirm the sentence imposed.