Opinion ID: 69925
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Amount of Drugs Attributed to Hamilton

Text: Hamilton argues that he should only have been held responsible for 560 grams of crack cocaine, instead of the 4.5 kilograms that the district court attributed to him at sentencing. Using the lower number would have reduced his base offense level by four, potentially knocking between 10 and 15 years off the 35-year sentence he received. Hamilton says that the court should have adopted the findings of the presentence investigation (PSI), which made a conservative 3 estimate of 560 grams based on Steven Pinkney’s trial testimony that he had bought crack in increments of 7 to 14 grams directly from Hamilton on at least a weekly basis over a twenty-month period. Hamilton notes that no other witness was able to tie him to a specific quantity of drugs. The government argues that Hamilton, as a co-conspirator, should also be held responsible for the much larger quantities of cocaine and crack attributed to Cawthon and Slack. The district court agreed with the government and found Hamilton responsible for “significantly beyond” 4.5 kilograms, the threshold for the highest offense level, based both on his own activities and on his participation in and knowledge of the conspiracy. The district court’s determination of drug quantity for sentencing purposes is reviewed for clear error. United States v. Simpson, 228 F.3d 1294, 1298 (11th Cir. 2000). In order to calculate the base offense level, the court must determine the quantity of illegal drugs properly attributable to the defendant. United States v. Frazier, 89 F.3d 1501, 1506 (11th Cir. 1996). If no drugs are seized, or if the amount seized does not adequately reflect the scale of the offense, the court may estimate a quantity from evidence of the “average frequency and amount” of the defendant’s drug sales over time. Id.; see United States Sentencing Guidelines § 2D1.1 cmt. n.12 (Nov. 2009). The defendant’s sentence may be based on “fair, 4 accurate, and conservative estimates” of drug quantity, but not on mere speculation. United States v. Zapata, 139 F.3d 1355, 1359 (11th Cir. 1998). It is the government’s burden to establish the quantity of drugs by a preponderance of the evidence. United States v. Lawrence, 47 F.3d 1559, 1566 (11th Cir. 1995). However, the court may rely on undisputed statements in the PSI. United States v. Hedges, 175 F.3d 1312, 1315 (11th Cir. 1999). A member of a drug conspiracy is liable not only for his own acts, but also for the acts of others “in furtherance of the activity that the defendant agreed to undertake and that are reasonably foreseeable in connection with that activity.” United States v. Ismond, 993 F.2d 1498, 1499 (11th Cir. 1993). This rule applies to drug quantity determinations. See U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) & cmt. n.2 (“[T]he defendant is accountable for all quantities of contraband with which he was directly involved and . . . all reasonably foreseeable quantities of contraband that were within the scope of the criminal activity that he jointly undertook.”). In such cases, the court must make individualized findings as to each defendant’s scope of involvement, and then determine the drug quantities “reasonably foreseeable” to that defendant given his level of participation. Ismond, 993 F.3d at 1499. If the court does not make individualized findings, the sentence may nevertheless be upheld if the record supports the amount of drugs attributed to the defendant. Id. 5 Ample evidence at trial showed that over the several years of its operation the drug ring handled amounts of crack cocaine well in excess of the 4.5 kilogram threshold. Christopher Watson testified that he accompanied Cawthon and Slack on numerous out-of-state trips to buy powder cocaine for sale or conversion into crack, that they would obtain three or four kilograms each time, and that Hamilton was one of their regular distributors. Byron Washington testified that on a “weekly” basis during late 2005 and 2006 he would supply Cawthon’s group with quantities of cocaine ranging from quarter-kilograms to multiple kilograms. The Probation Office estimated that the conspirators had collectively cooked and distributed over 38 kilograms of crack.1 Hamilton did not object to this calculation, so he is deemed to have admitted it for sentencing purposes. See United States v. Wade, 458 F.3d 1273, 1277 (11th Cir. 2006) (“It is the law of this circuit that a failure to object to allegations of fact in a PSI admits those facts for sentencing purposes.”). Five other longtime associates of Hamilton testified that he was heavily involved in the drug business with Cawthon and Slack, and that the trio worked together in processing and distributing crack. Three of those witnesses had 1 According to DEA statistics cited in Hamilton’s PSI, powder cocaine retains between 80% and 90% of its weight when “cooked” into crack, depending on the skill of the cook. The Probation Office assumed that only half the powder purchased by Cawthon and Slack was converted to crack, and used the more conservative 80% conversion ratio. 6 purchased cocaine or crack directly from Hamilton. Katrisa Thomas, who lent her own kitchen for the group’s “cooking” operations, testified at Hamilton’s sentencing that he had been involved in the drug trade with Cawthon and Slack since his school days, and that the three were “always together.” Based on this evidence, the district court did not clearly err in finding that Hamilton could reasonably have foreseen that the criminal enterprise he joined would be responsible for more than 4.5 kilograms of crack cocaine.