Opinion ID: 77674
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Defendant's Challenge to His Sentencing

Text: 60 Dean argues that the district court erred when it based his sentence upon facts that were not conceded at trial nor proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, citing Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). This is not the first time that he raised this objection; he asserted it at his sentencing hearing as well. Dean's Pre-Sentencing Investigation Report (PSI) calculated his base offense level at 18 because the tax loss to the Government was $290,997.44. Dean argues that the Government did not charge the amount of tax loss in its indictment, nor prove it to the jury beyond reasonable doubt, and that he certainly did not concede this amount of loss at trial. Therefore, Dean contends it was error for the court to use this figure in calculating his Guidelines range, and that his base level should have been calculated at 6 since the amount of loss was indeterminable. 61 Moreover, the court compounded this error, Dean argues, when it sentenced him in keeping with the so-called remedial portion or second majority opinion in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 259-60, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). Booker held that the section of the Sentencing Reform Act which made the Guidelines mandatory was unconstitutional. Id. Rather than invalidate the entire Act, the Court excised that section, making the Guidelines effectively advisory. 3 Id. Under the mandatory sentencing scheme that prevailed at the time Dean committed his offenses, 1997-2003, Dean's maximum sentence would have been capped by the upper end of the Guidelines range. 62 After Booker, however, district courts were free to increase sentences beyond the Guidelines range. 4 This is what the district court did in Dean's case. He argues that the court violated the due process and ex post facto clauses of the Fifth Amendment because the offenses for which he was being sentenced occurred before Booker. 63 We have repeatedly rejected the argument that the application of the remedial portion of Booker to conduct that occurred prior to Booker violates ex post facto principles or due process. United States v. Thomas, 446 F.3d 1348, 1353-55 (11th Cir. 2006); United States v. Duncan, 400 F.3d 1297, 1306-08 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ____, 126 S.Ct. 432, 163 L.Ed.2d 329 (2005); United States v. Hunt, 459 F.3d 1180, 1181 n. 1 (11th Cir. 2006). 64 We have also held that a district court may make additional factual findings under a preponderance of the evidence standard, that go beyond the facts found by the jury, so long as the court recognizes the Guidelines are advisory. United States v. Pope, 461 F.3d 1331, 1335 (11th Cir. 2006). And, we have held that a district court may enhance a sentence based upon judicial fact-finding provided that its findings do not increase the sentence beyond the statutory maximum authorized by facts determined in a guilty plea or jury verdict. Hunt, 459 F.3d at 1182. We have also stated that the maximum sentence is the sentence prescribed under United States Code. See Duncan, 400 F.3d at 1308 (citing United States v. Sanchez, 269 F.3d 1250, 1268 (11th Cir. 2001)). 65 The district court applied the Guidelines as advisory. It sentenced Dean to a total of 84 months: three concurrent jail terms of 60 months on Counts I-III and three concurrent jail terms of 24 months on Counts IV-VII. The sentences for Counts I-III and Counts IV-VII were to run consecutively. Under the United States Code, the statutory maximum for tax evasion (Counts I-VI) is 60 months and the maximum for attempting to interfere with the administration of internal revenue laws (Count VII) is 36 months. See 26 U.S.C. § 7201 and 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a). The district court did not increase Dean's sentence beyond this statutory maximum. Additionally, we find that the amount of tax loss stated in Dean's PSI conforms to the evidence on record from the IRS. Accordingly, the district court's factual finding on the amount of loss was not clearly erroneous.