Opinion ID: 597808
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Base Offense Level of 36 Under the Guidelines

Text: 64 Frias contends that the base offense level for the offenses of which he was convicted should have been at most 16, which carried an imprisonment range of 24-30 months. He argues that the federal Sentencing Commission (Commission) could not have intended to require the much higher base offense level of 36, and ensuing adjustment to 38 for which the imprisonment range was 262-327 months, on the basis of conduct of which he had been acquitted. We conclude that the district court properly interpreted the Guidelines as directing the calculation of the base offense level with reference to Frias's acquitted conduct, but we also conclude that the court should consider whether the outcome of that calculation in the present case warrants a downward departure. 65 Under the 1988 Guidelines, a conviction under § 922(g)(1) for possession of firearms by a person previously convicted of a felony was governed by § 2K2.1; a conviction under § 5861(d) for possession of unregistered firearms was governed by § 2K2.2. Compare 1988 Guidelines §§ 2K2.1, 2K2.2 with 1989 Guidelines §§ 2K2.1, 2K2.2 (eff. Nov. 1, 1989) (placing most weapons possession offenses under § 2K2.1) and 1990 Guidelines §§ 2K2.1, 2K2.2 (eff. Nov. 1, 1990) (same) and 1991 Guidelines § 2K2.1 (eff. Nov. 1, 1991) (adding most weapons trafficking offenses to § 2K2.1). For Frias's § 922(g)(1) conviction, § 2K2.1(a) of the 1988 Guidelines set a base offense level of 9; for his § 5861 conviction, § 2K2.2(a) set a base offense level of 12. These offense levels were only conditional, however, for each section contained a cross-reference requiring the court to apply a different guideline if the firearm had been used in connection with another offense that carried a higher offense level: 66 [i]f the defendant used the firearm in committing or attempting another offense, apply the guideline in respect to such other offense, or § 2X1.1 (Attempt or Conspiracy) if the resulting offense level is higher than that determined above. 67 1988 Guidelines § 2K2.1(c)(1); see id. § 2K2.2(c)(1) (substituting for for in respect to, and moving second comma to follow parenthetical). Here, the court was persuaded by at least a preponderance of the evidence that Frias had used his firearms in connection with the Organization's narcotics conspiracy. It was required, therefore, to turn to § 2X1.1. 68 Section 2X1.1 set as the base offense level for conspiracy [t]he base offense level from the guideline for the object offense, plus any adjustments from such guideline for any intended offense conduct that can be established with reasonable certainty. 1988 Guidelines § 2X1.1(a) (emphasis added). Since the object of the Organization's conspiracy was distribution of narcotics, the court was required to look to Guidelines § 2D1.1. That section required that narcotics traffickers be sentenced in relation to the quantity of narcotics involved in the offense, see 1988 Guidelines § 2D1.1(a)(3), as set forth in the Drug Quantity Table following § 2D1.1. Since the evidence showed that the Organization had distributed more than 10 kilograms of heroin, that Table required a base offense level of 36. 69 In United States v. Patterson, 947 F.2d 635 (2d Cir.1991), this Court held that under the comparable cross-reference provision found in § 2K2.1(c)(2) of the 1990 Guidelines, the base offense level for a defendant convicted of both firearms and narcotics offenses was properly calculated as if the weapons offense were a drug offense because the latter carried the higher penalty. See id. at 636 (when evidence show[s] that the gun was possessed in connection with an attempted drug transaction and the object offense carries a higher offense level than that provided for the gun offense, the Guidelines explicitly refer the sentencing court to the guideline for the offense committed or attempted). Patterson, however, did not deal with the question of whether such an increase was intended when the defendant was not convicted of both weapons and narcotics offenses. 70 The cross-references in the weapons sections of the 1988 Guidelines, quoted above, referred simply to committing another offense, without specifying whether that offense was to be an offense of which the defendant was convicted. We think it plain, however, that there was no intent to require a conviction, for the commentary accompanying § 2K2.1 indicates that the Commission did not mean its reference to be limited to offenses with which the defendant was charged. It stated that 71 [t]he firearm statutes often are used as a device to enable the federal court to exercise jurisdiction over offenses that otherwise could be prosecuted only under state law. For example, a convicted felon may be prosecuted for possessing a firearm if he used the firearm to rob a gasoline station. Such prosecutions result in high sentences because of the true nature of the underlying conduct. The cross reference at § 2K2.1(c)(1) deals with such cases. 72 1988 Guidelines § 2K2.1 Background (emphasis added). Since the Commission intended another offense to include an offense that could not be prosecuted in federal court, it obviously meant that term to include conduct with which the defendant was not charged. Accord United States v. Humphries, 961 F.2d 1421, 1422 (9th Cir.1992) (per curiam) (Commission intended to allow the continuation of the practice of extending federal jurisdiction over otherwise unreachable underlying conduct); United States v. Harris, 932 F.2d 1529, 1537 (5th Cir.) (no error in sentencing defendant under the guideline for murder when calculating defendant's sentence for firearms offense even though defendant was not charged with murder), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 324, 116 L.Ed.2d 265 (1991); United States v. Willis, 925 F.2d 359, 361 (10th Cir.1991) (the cross reference ... requires that when a defendant uses an illegal firearm to commit other offense conduct [aggravated assault] that he be sentenced according to such other offense conduct even though his conviction is only for the unlawful possession of firearms); United States v. Madewell, 917 F.2d 301, 306 (7th Cir.1990) (same). Thus, in United States v. Bronaugh, 895 F.2d 247 (6th Cir.1990), the Sixth Circuit ruled that a defendant charged with and convicted of only a firearms offense was properly sentenced to the statutory maximum prison term of five years, rather than the 6-12-month range conditionally prescribed by 1988 Guidelines § 2K2.1(a) for his offense of conviction, because the district court found it established by a preponderance of the evidence that he had used the weapon in drug trafficking. The court of appeals noted that the cross-reference in that section led to a higher offense level, resulting in a prescribed imprisonment range of 262-327 months though the defendant had not been charged with drug trafficking. It ruled that the five-fold increase in his sentence because a preponderance of the evidence indicates he is guilty of an uncharged crime was intended by the Commission and was within the authority granted by Congress. Id. at 251. 73 Given the Commission's evident intent that the term another offense include uncharged offenses, we are left with the question of whether it also meant that term to include an offense with which the defendant was charged but of which he was acquitted. We conclude that it did. It had been established long before the advent of the Guidelines that the sentencing court could properly take into account any information known to it, see, e.g., Williams v. New York, 337 U.S. 241, 246, 69 S.Ct. 1079, 1082, 93 L.Ed. 1337 (1949), so long as the defendant had an opportunity to respond in order that the court not rely on misinformation, Townsend v. Burke, 334 U.S. 736, 741, 68 S.Ct. 1252, 1255, 92 L.Ed. 1690 (1948). Since an [a]cquittal d[id] not have the effect of conclusively establishing the untruth of all the evidence introduced against [a] defendant, United States v. Sweig, 454 F.2d 181, 184 (2d Cir.1972), and since disputed facts for purposes of sentencing needed only to be established by a preponderance of the evidence, see, e.g., United States v. Lee, 818 F.2d 1052, 1057 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 484 U.S. 956, 108 S.Ct. 350, 98 L.Ed.2d 376 (1987), the sentencing court was entitled to consider information that the defendant had engaged in conduct that was the subject of an acquittal, United States v. Roland, 748 F.2d 1321, 1327 (2d Cir.1984); United States v. Sweig, 454 F.2d at 183. 74 We have ruled that the adoption of the Guidelines has not changed these basic principles. Thus, disputed facts relevant to sentencing, even under the Guidelines, need be established only by a preponderance of the evidence. See, e.g., United States v. Rodriguez-Gonzalez, 899 F.2d 177, 182 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 844, 111 S.Ct. 127, 112 L.Ed.2d 95 (1990); United States v. Cousineau, 929 F.2d 64, 67 (2d Cir.1991); United States v. Shoulberg, 895 F.2d 882, 886-87 (2d Cir.1990); United States v. Guerra, 888 F.2d 247, 251 (2d Cir.1989) (preponderance standard applicable to calculation of offense level based on defendant's possession of uncharged narcotics), cert. denied, 494 U.S. 1090, 110 S.Ct. 1833, 108 L.Ed.2d 961 (1990); see also United States v. Restrepo, 946 F.2d 654, 655-56 (9th Cir.1991) (en banc) (collecting cases), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1564, 118 L.Ed.2d 211 (1992). And the sentencing court remains entitled to rely on any type of information known to it. See, e.g., United States v. Carmona, 873 F.2d 569, 574 (2d Cir.1989) (use of testimony from trial in which defendant was not a defendant or represented by counsel); United States v. Alexander, 860 F.2d 508, 512-13 (2d Cir.1988) (use of grand jury testimony); see also 1988 Guidelines § 1B1.3 Background (Relying on the entire range of conduct, regardless of the number of counts that are alleged or on which a conviction is obtained, appears to be the most reasonable approach to writing workable guidelines for [such] offenses.). 75 Accordingly, in United States v. Rodriguez-Gonzalez, in which a defendant had been convicted of narcotics trafficking but acquitted of possessing a firearm in connection with that trafficking, we upheld the district court's upward adjustment of his base offense level by two steps based on the offense characteristic of possessing a firearm during the commission of narcotics offense. 899 F.2d at 182; cf. United States v. Moreno, 933 F.2d 362, 374 (6th Cir.) (upholding sentencing court's consideration of quantities of drugs dealt in by conspiracy, where defendant was convicted of attempting to possess 500 or more grams of cocaine but acquitted of conspiracy), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 265, 116 L.Ed.2d 218 (1991). 76 Frias seeks to distinguish Rodriguez-Gonzalez on the basis that there the sentencing court used the acquitted conduct merely to adjust a base offense level upward by a relatively small increment, not to set a high base offense level initially. We think any suggestion that the Commission did not intend to prescribe a high base offense level in circumstances such as those here, or that the Guidelines are ambiguous in this regard, is belied by the commentary to § 2K2.1, quoted above, which explained that the cross-reference to the higher base offense levels for other crimes was a recognition that prosecutions under the federal firearm statutes often result in high sentences because of the true nature of the underlying conduct. 1988 Guidelines § 2K2.1 Background. All later versions of the Guidelines have included the same cross-reference, see 1992 Guidelines § 2K2.1(c)(1)(A); id. Application Note 14; 1991 Guidelines § 2K2.1(c)(1)(A); id. Application Note 14; 1990 Guidelines § 2K2.1(c)(2), and the 1990 Guidelines made the same observation, see id. Background. 77 We conclude that, in light of the court's findings that Frias possessed his guns in connection with the Organization's conspiracy to distribute more than 10 kilograms of narcotics, the applicable guideline established a base offense level of 36. 78 Nonetheless, both the Guidelines and the Sentencing Reform Act provide that the sentencing court may impose a sentence outside the range established by the applicable guideline, if the court finds 'that there exists an aggravating or mitigating circumstance of a kind, or to a degree, not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines that should result in a sentence different from that described.'  Guidelines § 5K2.0 (quoting 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b) (1988) (emphasis added)). Although the above discussion reveals that the Commission envisioned some increase in offense level based on conduct of which the defendant had been acquitted, it is questionable whether it envisioned an increase to the degree that occurred here. The example given in the Background commentary to 1988 Guidelines § 2K2.1 does not indicate that the Commission intended the cross-reference, to a guideline for conduct of which the defendant was not convicted, to result in so large an increase. 79 In stating that the cross-reference provided by § 2K2.1(c)(1) could result in high sentences because of the true nature of the underlying conduct, the commentary provided as an illustration a convicted felon ... prosecuted for possessing a firearm if he used the firearm to rob a gasoline station. 1988 Guidelines § 2K2.1 Background. The base offense level for possession of that firearm under the 1988 Guidelines would have been 9; application of the cross-reference to the 1988 guideline for robbery would have resulted in a base offense level of 18, see 1988 Guidelines § 2B3.1(a), an increase of nine levels. Assuming a defendant, such as Frias, with a Criminal History Category of II, the sentence would have been increased from 6-12 months to 30-37 months; instead of a possible prison term of just six months, the hypothetical defendant could have been sentenced to more than three years. Such an increased sentence would aptly be termed high. 80 On the other hand, an increase from one year to 22 years would more aptly be termed astronomical. In the present case, application of the cross-reference provision raised Frias's base offense level from 12 to 36, increasing the prescribed imprisonment range from 12-18 months to 210-262 months. Thus, instead of being imprisoned for perhaps as little as one year, he could, in theory, have been sentenced to imprisonment for nearly 22 years. If the Commission had intended that conduct of which the defendant was acquitted could lead to a sentence of nearly 22 years instead of one-to-three years, we doubt that it would have chosen the relatively mild term high. 81 In sum, though we agree with the district court that application of the cross-reference provisions of the Guidelines resulted in a base offense level of 36, we doubt that, with respect to conduct of which the defendant was acquitted, the Commission intended so extreme an increase. We therefore conclude that the district court had the power to depart downward pursuant to Guidelines § 5K2.0. Since the court apparently did not consider whether such a departure was permissible, we vacate Frias's sentence and remand the matter to permit the court to consider whether or not to depart from the offense level arrived at through strict application of the Guidelines.