Opinion ID: 6982210
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Separate Error

Text: Woods argues that the district court erred by including five points in his criminal history score. The government, citing United States v. Organek, 65 F.3d 60, 62 (6th Cir.1995), and United States v. French, 974 F.2d 687, 697 (6th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 506 U.S. 1066, 113 S.Ct. 1012, 122 L.Ed.2d 160 (1993), argues that Woods waived this argument because he did not object before the district court. Although Woods appears to concede this, see Reply Br. of Def. Woods.at 16-17, he argues that this inclusion of criminal history points was clearly erroneous and upon remand for resentencing, the district court should reconsider his criminal history score. The government appears to rely on 21 U.S.C. § 851(b), which states that any failure to challenge a prior conviction before the sentence is imposed constitutes waiver of the issue. See Organek, 65 F.3d at 62. Woods, however, does not challenge the prior convictions; instead he contests the district court’s calculation of the date he joined the conspiracy. We therefore review this issue for plain error. The probation officer assessed three criminal history points to Woods for juvenile petit theft convictions when he was ten to eleven years old under U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2(d)(2)(B), see J.A. at 2331-32 (PSR at ¶¶ 94, 95, 97), and two points under § 4Al.l(e) because Woods allegedly joined the conspiracy within two years of release from confinement. See J.A. at 2337 (PSR at ¶ 111). Dotson and Crockett testified that they first saw Woods selling crack in 1991, see J.A. at 490-92 (Test, of Dotson); J.A. at 1600-02, 1604-07 (Test, of Crockett), but that the conspiracy began in 1989. See J.A. at 483-89 (Test, of Dotson); J.A. at 1597-98 (Test, of Crockett). The probation officer concluded that Woods joined the conspiracy in 1990, when he was arrested for possession of crack and carrying a concealed weapon. See J.A. at 2337 (PSR at 21 ¶ 111). Woods argues that he cannot be found to have joined the conspiracy until 1991, because the founders of the SNP did not even see him selling before then. Woods’s theory would render erroneous the sentence enhancements under U.S.S.G. §§ 4Al.l(e) and 4A1.2(d)(2)(Bj. The district court, however, found that the 1990 arrest constituted a “reasonable determination of when the defendant first became involved with the Posse.” Sentencing Hr’g Tr. at 4. The district court may consider any relevant conduct in determining the “commencement of the instant offense” for purposes of computing enhancements for criminal history. See U.S.S.G. § 4A1.2 commentary, applic. note 8. For the 1990 arrest to constitute relevant conduct, it must either be found to be an act “during the commission of the offense of conviction” under U.S.S.G. § lB1.3(a)(l)(A) or, because each of the three Counts on which Woods was convicted was for an offense that requires grouping of counts under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(d), an act that was “part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the offense of conviction” under U.S.S.G. § lB1.3(a)(2). The 1990 sale is included as relevant conduct under U.S.S.G. § lB1.3(a)(l) in the presentence investigation report. See J.A. at 2329-30 (PSR at ¶¶ 83, 85). The 1990 sale did not occur “during the commission of the offense of conviction” on Counts 125 or 146, both of which were based on drug transactions in 1994. The probation officer must, therefore, have considered the 1990 sale to have occurred during the commission of the conspiracy offense. The fact that Woods possessed crack in the Short North in 1990, however, does not alone render the 1990 possession during the commission of the conspiracy offense, as the district court appears to have concluded. If, at resentencing, the government maintains this position, the government must show by a preponderance of the evidence that Woods was a member of the conspiracy at the time he was arrested in 1990 for possession of crack cocaine and a firearm.