Opinion ID: 1443394
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Challenged Guideline Calculations Were Appropriate.

Text: Thompson received a sentence of 190 years' imprisonment. The district court imposed this sentence after concluding that Thompson had committed premeditated murder, making the first degree murder cross-reference, U.S.S.G. § 2A1.1, applicable. The indictment did not charge Thompson with the crime of murder, and the jury was not asked whether Thompson had committed murder. As a result, Thompson maintains that his sentence violates Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), and his Sixth Amendment right to a trial by jury. On appeal, we can review whether the district court correctly calculated the advisory range under the United States Sentencing Guidelines, but after that, we must give deference to the district court's choice of sentence. Gall v. United States, ___ U.S. ___, 128 S.Ct. 586, 591, 169 L.Ed.2d 445 (2007). Here, it is clear that the district court believed Thompson committed premeditated murder and sought to impose as long a sentence as possible. We find no legal error in its decision to do so. Turning to Thompson's specific arguments, he first maintains that for the murder cross-reference to apply, a jury needed to find beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed murder. In response, the government begins by contending that the jury's verdict of guilty necessarily means that it found that Thompson had deliberately killed his mother. Indeed, the district court thought so, stating at sentencing: Particularly relevant here is the jury's determination that [the defendant] engaged in arson in burning that house and that he engaged in a scheme to defraud CHUBB Insurance by concealing the fact that he burned the building and then staged the whole event to look as if his mother was committing suicide. The death of Carmen Thompson was part and parcel, it was an essential component, of the government's case, it was the way the government presented the case to jury, and it was the way the case was defended. And paragraph five of Count One in the indictment had alleged in part: It was further part of the scheme that the defendant intentionally staged the fire at his residence to appear to be an arson committed by his mother, Carmen S. Thompson, then 90 years old. As a direct result of the defendant's intentional acts, his mother died of smoke inhalation in the basement of the Paulina Residence. As Thompson points out, however, the jury was told that it needed to find only one of the acts charged in the wire fraud scheme in Count One to convict on that count, and not all the charged acts referenced Carmen's death. The jury also returned only a general verdict, so it did not explicitly find that Thompson had committed the premeditated murder of his mother. In any event, the law did not require the jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Thompson had committed the premeditated murder of his mother for the murder cross-reference to apply. In saying so, we are not unmindful that it might seem odd to see that this case has been prosecuted as a wire fraud case in federal court, not as a murder case in state court. A state court murder prosecution would not have raised the Sixth Amendment concerns Thompson brings here; it is unclear why such a prosecution was not brought. Our precedent, however, forecloses Thompson's challenges to his sentence. First, we have made clear that even after the Supreme Court's decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005), judges may make findings at sentencing using a preponderance of the evidence standard. See, e.g., McReynolds v. United States, 397 F.3d 479, 481 (7th Cir.2005) ([D]ecisions about sentencing factors will continue to be made by judges, on the preponderance of the evidence, an approach that comports with the sixth amendment so long as the guideline system has some flexibility in application.). We also note that in this case, the district court judge went further, finding that whether one applies the standard of proof beyond a reasonable doubt or using the applicable standard of evidence the government has established [the defendant's] offense behavior includes the premeditated murder of his mother. We have also already rejected the argument that enhancing a sentence based on an uncharged murder violates Apprendi. Under Apprendi, [o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be presented to a jury and proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 530 U.S. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348. In United States v. Veysey, 334 F.3d 600 (7th Cir.2003), the defendant was convicted of fifteen counts of mail fraud and one count each of arson, wire fraud, and using fire to commit mail fraud. In determining the Guidelines range, the district court applied the first degree murder enhancement, even though murder had not been charged. The total statutory maxima of the counts of conviction was 110 years. We held that the defendant's receipt of that sentence did not violate Apprendi. Veysey, 334 F.3d at 602. Here, the total statutory maxima of the counts of convictionthe relevant inquiry under Apprendi  was 190 years, the same sentence he received. There was no Apprendi violation. See also United States v. Santiago, 495 F.3d 820, 822-24 (7th Cir.2007) (rejecting Sixth Amendment challenge to district court's finding at sentencing that the defendant had committed an uncharged murder, which resulted in an increased Guidelines range); United States v. Reuter, 463 F.3d 792, 793 (7th Cir.2006) (same). Next, the district court's decision to impose consecutive maximum sentences on each count of conviction was not erroneous. Thompson maintains that only the wire fraud, arson, and one money laundering charge can be stacked because they are the only charges applicable to the relevant conduct of murder. We disagree. The concept of relevant conduct mattered in the initial assessment of whether the murder enhancement was proper under the Guidelines. See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3. But relevant conduct does not prevent a court from imposing consecutive statutory maximum sentences for all counts of conviction. Instead, U.S.S.G. § 5G1.2(d) states: If the sentence imposed on the count carrying the highest statutory maximum is less than the total punishment, then the sentence imposed on one or more of the counts shall run consecutively, but only to the extent necessary to produce a combined sentence equal to the total punishment. Again, Veysey is instructive. There, the highest statutory maximum for any individual count was twenty years. We upheld the district court's decision to impose consecutive statutory maximum sentences for a resulting sentence of 110 years' imprisonment, and we explained: The federal sentencing guidelines direct the judge, when there are multiple counts of conviction, to impose maximum and consecutive sentences to the extent necessary to make the total punishment equal in severity to what the guidelines would require were it not for the statutory maxima. Because Veysey's remarkable spree included murder, as well as attempted murder, multiple arsons, and multiple frauds, the guideline sentence would have been life. The judge exceeded no statutory maximum in producing an equivalent sentence [of 110 years' imprisonment]. Veysey, 334 F.3d at 602 (internal citations omitted). In this case as well, the advisory Guidelines range was life imprisonment. The district court thought a life sentence was warranted, and it did not err when it imposed consecutive maximum sentences on each count of conviction to reach an equivalent sentence. Finally, Thompson maintains that his Fifth Amendment right to due process was violated because the Guidelines, although advisory now, were mandatory when the charged offenses took place. We rejected a similar argument in United States v. Jamison, 416 F.3d 538, 539-40 (7th Cir. 2005), and we decline to revisit it here.