Opinion ID: 794243
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Judicial Factfinding as to Drug Quantity

Text: 32 Florez argues that, after United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621, the district court could not calculate his Guidelines sentence based on its own preponderance finding that he had dealt in ten to thirty kilograms of heroin when, as in this case, the jury had concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that he had dealt in three to ten kilograms of heroin. 33 This argument is foreclosed by our decision in United States v. Garcia, which holds that [j]udicial authority to find facts relevant to sentencing by a preponderance of the evidence survives Booker.  413 F.3d 201, 220 n. 15 (2d Cir.2005); see also United States v. Gonzalez, 407 F.3d 118, 125 (2d Cir.2005) (confirming district courts' post- Booker authority to resolve disputed facts by a preponderance of the evidence when arriving at a Guidelines sentence); United States v. Crosby, 397 F.3d 103, 112 (2d Cir.2005) (explaining that with the mandatory use of the Guidelines excised, the traditional authority of a sentencing judge to find all facts relevant to sentencing will encounter no Sixth Amendment objection). No contrary rule is warranted by the fact that the jury in this case made a specific finding of heroin quantity beyond the one kilogram necessary to trigger statutory mandatory minimums. See 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(b)(1)(A), 960(b)(1)(A). As this court ruled in United States v. Vaughn, a sentencing court may 34 find facts relevant to sentencing by a preponderance of the evidence, even where the jury acquitted the defendant of that conduct, as long as the judge does not impose (1) a sentence in the belief that the Guidelines are mandatory, (2) a sentence that exceeds the statutory maximum authorized by the jury verdict, or (3) a mandatory minimum sentence under [21 U.S.C.] § 841(b) not authorized by the verdict. 35 430 F.3d 518, 527 (2d Cir.2005). The same rationale allowed the district court in this case to make its own preponderance finding of a higher drug quantity than the amount found by the jury. 36 As the record makes plain, the district court was fully aware of the advisory nature of the Guidelines when it sentenced Florez to 210 months' imprisonment. Indeed, it imposed a non-Guidelines sentence to mitigate the disparity between Florez's Guidelines range and the sentence received by his brother. Further, Florez's sentence was within the applicable statutory range of ten years to life for each of the crimes of conviction. Under these circumstances, the district court correctly made its own preponderance finding as to the quantity of heroin in excess of one kilogram properly attributable to Florez for purposes of its Sentencing Guidelines calculation.