Opinion ID: 3158518
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: Defendant Blake Snowden pleaded guilty to unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, see 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C), and to intercepting emails, see id. § 2511(1)(a). In calculating his offense level under the sentencing guidelines, the district court applied a 16-level enhancement after finding that these crimes caused losses exceeding a million dollars. The resulting guideline sentencing range was 41–51 months’ imprisonment. Varying downward, the court imposed a 30-month sentence. Defendant argues that the district court erred in calculating loss and thereby arrived at an unduly high guideline sentencing range. We discuss the court’s calculation but ultimately hold that if there was any error, it was harmless because it did not affect the sentence. The court, after thoroughly exploring the matter, explained why the sentence was proper under 18 U.S.C. § 3553 and unequivocally stated that it would impose the same sentence even if 30 months exceeded the correct guideline range. On one ground, however, we must reverse. The district court ordered restitution in the amount of $25,354. Both parties agree that this was an oversight that should be corrected on remand to $24,174.