Opinion ID: 778825
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Number of Days

Text: 36 When the multiplier method is used to approximate drug activity over time, the court must select a time period over which it is more likely than not that the defendants were dealing in the average daily or weekly quantity. See August, 86 F.3d at 155. To establish that illegal activity was continuous between Point A and Point B, it is not enough simply to establish that drug sales occurred at Points A and B, at least where A and B are not close enough in time to infer [that the defendants] were dealing on a regular basis in the interim. Walton, 908 F.2d at 1302. This principle is illustrated by Walton, where the Sixth Circuit reversed a drug approximation using the multiplier method because the government had failed to establish continuous illegal activity between drug sales that took place in 1986 and drug paraphernalia found during a search of defendants' home in 1988. Without evidence filling the two-year gap, the evidence was simply insufficient to support a finding of continuous drug dealing during this period. Id. at 1303. 37 As in Walton, the investigation here involved extended intervals between controlled buys — an extraordinary 28 months in one instance and nine months in another. To overcome these gaps, the government once again presses the neighbors' trial testimony into service. The neighbors' reports constitute some evidence that the Culpses regularly sold marijuana during the 1205-day period. Balch was asked to describe the traffic at least for the two or three years preceding execution of the warrant. His answer of 30 to 50 cars per night spans a period of time corresponding to a portion of the period charged in the indictment. Broderson's testimony that the traffic had been heavy for quite a few years and that it's always been heavy furnishes some underpinning for the district court's finding of continuous operation. The direct evidence of continuous dealing also was stronger here than it was in Walton. Agents' contacts with the Culps residence, although marked by large intervals, were nonetheless numerous. The search, moreover, turned up not just drug paraphernalia, but tell-tale signs of large-volume marijuana dealing. The controlled buys occurring in 1996 and 1998-99 and the physical evidence seized in June 1999 bolster the district court's conclusion. 38 Nonetheless, we must conclude that the evidence was insufficient to establish continuous operation during the period charged in the indictment. Even if Balch's testimony is read in the light most favorable to the government, it does not fully bridge the gap in the government's investigation. Broderson's testimony was simply too vague to establish a reliable evidentiary basis for the district court's conclusion. The direct evidence of drug sales in 1996 and 1998-99 is not sufficient to establish continuous operation in the intervening two years. In short, the neighbors' trial testimony was not tailored to sentencing and the evidence that the government produced at sentencing did not establish continuous operation. On this record, we cannot sustain the district court's finding that Culps' drug business operated for 1205 days. 39 The district court's use of a 50% discount cannot cure the approximation's evidentiary defects. As a general matter, we follow the Third and Sixth Circuits and approve of the use of a discount in multiplier cases to account for uncertainties and satisfy the district court's duty to err on the side of caution. The 50% discount is an appropriate tool in the right case. See Walton, 908 F.2d at 1302 (approving of the district court's halving of the government's estimate as necessary to give effect to the court's duty to err on the side of caution and as constitutionally required to prevent excessive sentences); Paulino, 996 F.2d at 1548 (The halving of [the government's proposed amount], rather than being arbitrary, is, instead a reasonable calculation by the district court, erring on the side of caution, to take into consideration `off' days and days in which perhaps lesser sales occurred.). If the evidence here had supported continuous operation, the 50% reduction would have been an appropriate mechanism to account for the margin of error in the number of days drugs were sold, including off days, days in which the Culpses were out of product, snow days, days Culps was in custody and other uncertainties. The district court's 50% reduction, however, cannot substitute for sufficient and reliable evidence that marijuana more probably than not was sold on 1205 days, an estimate that presumes, without an adequate evidentiary foundation, continuous operation during the extraordinary investigatory lapses. See Walton, 908 F.2d at 1302-03 (approving of the district court's 50% discount but nonetheless vacating its approximation where the government failed to establish continuous drug dealing). 40