Opinion ID: 203237
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Drug-Quantity Calculation

Text: In determining drug quantity for purposes of calculating a defendant's base offense level under the Guidelines, the sentencing court may attribute to the defendant all reasonably foreseeable quantities of contraband that were within the scope of the criminal activity that he jointly undertook. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 cmt. n.2(ii). Thus, a drug dealer who engages in criminal activity with others to further their collective interests may be held liable for the quantities of drugs sold by his partners, if those sales were a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the jointly undertaken actions. Laboy, 351 F.3d at 582. If the quantity of drugs actually seized does not reflect the full scale of the offense, the sentencing court may make a reasonable estimate of the total quantity involved. See id. at 584 (citing U.S.S.G. -20- § 2D1.1 cmt. n.12). The Government must prove drug quantity by a preponderance of the evidence. Id. at 582. We will uphold the sentencing court's estimate as long as it is reasoned and finds support in the record. See id. at 583-84. In adopting the PSR's recommendation, the sentencing court found Jones responsible for 4,174.16 kilograms of marijuana equivalent.7 This figure included 0.8 grams of powder cocaine (0.16 kilograms of marijuana equivalent) seized from Room 318, and 25.8 grams of crack cocaine (516 kilograms of marijuana equivalent) estimated from what coconspirator Thomas told federal agents he had introduced into the southern Maine market as part of the conspiracy.8 The PSR estimated the remaining amount as 3,658 grams of heroin (3,658 kilograms of marijuana equivalent). This quantity 7 As there are different controlled substances involved, the probation office converted each of the drugs into its marijuana equivalent, added the quantities, and looked up the total in the drug quantity table in U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c). See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 cmt. n.10(B). 8 Thomas told agents that, on at least three occasions, he went to New Jersey and brought back hundreds of vials of crack cocaine to Maine. The PSR estimated conservatively that Thomas had made three trips and brought back 100 vials per trip, at an average of 0.086 grams of crack cocaine per vial, for a total of 25.8 grams. For unknown reasons, the PSR did not recommend that Jones's sentence reflect other drugs it determined had been seized from Foster, Thomas, customers including a confidential informant, and from Room 318, as well as a quantity of heroin a customer named William Zinn admitted to having purchased from Jones. These amounted to 2.909 additional grams of crack cocaine and 15.512 grams of heroin. -21- was based mainly on the trial testimony of Foster that he received heroin from Jones and Thomas and distributed twenty bricks of heroin per week for twelve weeks from April to June 2005, and sixty bricks per week for twelve additional weeks from July to September 2005, until Foster was arrested. A brick of heroin consists of fifty bags at 0.059 grams each, for a total of 2,832 grams distributed by Foster. The PSR then determined that Jones continued in the conspiracy after the arrests of Foster and Thomas on September 19, 2005, until Jones's own arrest at the TownePlace Suites fourteen weeks later on December 29, 2005. The PSR continued: However, as there is no evidence of the quantities distributed during this time frame and the impact . . . the arrest of [Jones's] co-defendant's [sic] had on his ability to continue to distribute large amounts (60 bricks a week), the Probation Office has used the conservative amount of 20 bricks a week. Twenty bricks per week for the fourteen weeks from September 19, 2005, to December 29, 2005, produced a total of 826 grams. Added to the estimate of the amount Foster distributed for the conspiracy, the total came to 3,658 grams of heroin, or 3,658 kilograms of marijuana equivalent. This amount added to the 516.16 kilograms of marijuana equivalent in crack and powder cocaine produced a grand total of 4,174.16 kilograms of marijuana equivalent. The sentencing court found the facts presented in the PSR to be credible, and opined -22- that in all likelihood the amounts were probably greater than that set forth in the [PSR] and I find those quantities. In other words, the sentencing court found Jones responsible for 4,174.16 kilograms. In challenging this finding, Jones argues that the real weight attributable to him should be 2,176.20 kilograms of marijuana equivalent; he explained how he reached this figure in his brief and again at oral argument. Jones also alleges that the 826 grams the PSR attributed to him for September to December 2005 is pure speculation. Jones's estimated quantity -- 2,176.20 kilograms -- would result in a base offense level of thirty-two. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(4). Yet even if we assume that Jones has provided us and the sentencing court with a plausible estimate of the drug quantity attributable to him, he cannot prevail. This is because we find the PSR's estimate also to be generally plausible and that it enjoys a preponderance of record support primarily in the trial testimony of Foster. The sentencing court was therefore within its discretion when it chose the PSR's estimate over Jones's estimate. See United States v. Marks, 365 F.3d 101, 105 (1st Cir. 2004). We say generally plausible because we do agree with Jones in one respect. We are dissatisfied with the PSR's poorly reasoned conclusion that Jones was responsible for 826 grams of heroin (826 kilograms of marijuana equivalent) distributed between -23- September and December 2005, a finding for which the PSR conceded there is no evidence but that the sentencing court nonetheless adopted. Yet we need not decide whether such adoption was clearly erroneous, because any error that may have occurred was harmless. The threshold quantity that triggers a base offense level of thirty-four -- that which Jones received -- is 3,000 kilograms of marijuana equivalent. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(3). Even if we subtracted 826 from 4,174.16, the total found by the sentencing court, we would still be left with 3,321.16 kilograms, and Jones would receive the same base offense level. Cf. United States v. Hernández, 218 F.3d 58, 71 (1st Cir. 2000) (finding determination of drug quantity harmless, even if erroneous, as it did not affect defendant's sentence). We move on to Jones's final assignment of error.