Opinion ID: 2715920
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Denial of a Safety-Valve Reduction

Text: Under certain circumstances, a district court can sentence a defendant without regard to a statutory minimum. See U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2(a)(1)-(5). In the instant case, Silvestro was subject to a 10-year statutory minimum sentence under 21 U.S.C. § 846, and Silvestro argues the district court erred by not disregarding this statutory minimum under § 5C1.2(a). However, Silvestro was not eligible for safety-valve relief because he participated in a violent kidnapping and thereby aided and abetted the use of violence. See id. § 5C1.2(a)(2) (allowing a court to impose a sentence without regard to a statutory minimum only if, inter alia, the 1 When evaluating a sentence on appeal, “[w]e review the district court’s factual findings for clear error and the court’s application of the sentencing guidelines de novo.” United States v. McGuinness, 451 F.3d 1302, 1304 (11th Cir. 2006). We review the reasonableness of a sentence for abuse of discretion, asking first whether the district court committed any significant procedural error and then evaluating the sentence’s substantive reasonableness under the totality of the circumstances. United States v. Shaw, 560 F.3d 1230, 1237 (11th Cir. 2009). 2 Case: 13-12533 Date Filed: 08/07/2014 Page: 3 of 5 court finds that the defendant did not use violence in connection with the offense); see also id. § 5C1.2 cmt. n.4 (“[T]he term ‘defendant,’ as used in subsection (a)(2), limits the accountability of the defendant to his own conduct and conduct that he aided or abetted . . . .”). Moreover, the kidnapping resulted in a death, which also precluded the district court from disregarding the statutory minimum. See id. § 5C1.2(a)(3) (requiring that “the offense did not result in death . . . to any person”). For these reasons, the district court did not err in denying safety-valve relief to Silvestro.