Opinion ID: 1254151
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Use of Acquitted Conduct Regarding Drug Amount in Sentencing

Text: Roller and Young were indicted for a conspiracy to manufacture 1000 or more marijuana plants and to distribute 1000 or more kilograms of a substance containing marijuana. At trial, the jury found Roller and Young guilty of conspiracy, but determined that the conspiracy did not involve 1000 or more marijuana plants or 1000 or more kilograms of marijuana. Instead, the jury convicted Roller and Young of a conspiracy involving at least 100 but less than 1000 marijuana plants and at least 100 but less than 1000 kilograms of marijuana. Although the jury thereby acquitted Roller and Young of a conspiracy involving the larger quantity of marijuana, the district court sentenced Roller and Young based on the larger amount. Roller and Young argue that their sentences were impermissibly based on this higher amount of which the jury had acquitted them. In a factually similar case where the defendant was sentenced based on a quantity of drugs of which the jury had acquitted him, a panel of this court held that a post- Booker sentencing court may consider even `acquitted conduct' if it finds facts supporting that conduct by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Mendez, 498 F.3d 423, 427 (6th Cir.2007). In another case involving acquitted conduct subsequently heard by this court en banc, a majority of the judges of this circuit concluded that a district court may use acquitted conduct that it finds to a preponderance to enhance a defendant's sentence so long as the resulting sentence does not exceed the jury-authorized United States Code maximums. [9] United States v. White, 551 F.3d 381, 382 (6th Cir.2008) (en banc). Given this holding by the en banc majority, we must reject Roller's and Young's arguments that acquitted conduct cannot be used to enhance their sentences. However, we still must review the district court's decision to evaluate whether the acquitted quantity was proven by a preponderance. A district court's determination of the quantity of drugs used to compute a defendant's sentence is a finding of fact that should be upheld unless clearly erroneous. The district court's finding must be supported by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Hoskins, 173 F.3d 351, 354 (6th Cir.1999) (citation omitted). The inclusion of a drug quantity that has not been proven by a preponderance constitutes clear error. See, e.g., Gibbs, 182 F.3d at 440-45 (analyzing in detail findings underlying district court's determination of drug quantity). At sentencing, the district court specifically addressed the question of drug quantity. The district court found 2744 pounds [10] attributable to Roller: eleven pounds that was found in his freezer, fifteen pounds that he sold to Foutch, 400 pounds as an estimated quantity that would be recovered on one trip to Mexico, and the 2318 pounds that was found in the intercepted truck. With respect to Young, the district court was less precise, but it specifically attributed to Young the 2318 pounds from the intercepted truck and 530 pounds as an estimate of what Young had sold to Murray over the course of 15 years. [11] These findings attribute 2848 pounds of marijuana to Young. If the district court had not found to a preponderance that the intercepted truckload was connected to Roller and Young, Roller and Young could have been sentenced only in accordance with the jury finding that the conspiracy involved at least 100 but less than 1000 kilograms of marijuana. Because the other quantities found by the district court were either admitted by Roller and Young or fell within the quantity range authorized by the jury verdict, our analysis focuses on the district court's determination that there was sufficient evidence connecting Roller and Young to the intercepted truckload of marijuana. Although it is an extremely close question, we conclude that it was not clear error for the district court to conclude that the government had shown, to a preponderance, that the intercepted truckload of marijuana was attributable to Roller and Young. The district court based its findings on the fact that the marijuana was sent to Roller and Young's property, [12] that Roller and Young obtained marijuana from Mexico, that there was a truck resembling Young's in the area on the day of the delivery, and that Roller and Young changed cars frequently because they were afraid that the Mexicans were going to come after them. J.A. at 1568-69 (Sent'g Tr. at 15-16). There is, however, conflicting evidence that the district court did not mention. First, there was evidence that one of the individuals who was arrested at the scene of the delivery, Jaime Valdivia-Perez, was occupying the property at that time. Second, there was testimony that the owner of the truckload of marijuana had apologized to Young for drawing law enforcement to Young's property. Finally, there was little, if any, other evidence that Roller and Young dealt in quantities of marijuana as large as that found in the intercepted truck. This circuit has held that the district court cannot assume that any drugs in a given area belong to defendants who are major drug dealers in that area. Hoskins, 173 F.3d at 356-57 (The reasoning of the district court implies that because [the defendants] were two top dealers in the area, any marijuana grown and sold in the area was attributable to each of them. We believe the sentencing guidelines require a more particularized finding.). In this case, however, the district court made particularized findings related to evidence presented at trial and did not rely on an assumption that because Roller and Young were large-scale drug dealers in the area, the truckload of marijuana must have been theirs. Although the question of whether the government proved to a preponderance that the truckload was attributable to Roller and Young is a close one, we conclude that the district court did not clearly err when it concluded that the government had done so. [13] Were we reviewing the evidence ourselves, under a preponderance of the evidence standard, we might reach a different result, but we cannot conclude that the district court's findings constituted clear error.