Opinion ID: 2975703
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Gonzalez’s sentence

Text: Turning now to Gonzalez’s sentence, the parties raise arguments that pull in opposite directions. Gonzalez argues that the district court erred in varying upward two offense levels based on the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors to arrive at the 30-month sentence that he received. The government not only disputes this, but argues in its cross-appeal that the district court erred in not sentencing Gonzalez to at least the mandatory 60-month minimum sentence that is required for someone responsible for more than 500 grams of cocaine. We review the district court’s application of the Sentencing Guidelines and applicable statutes de novo, United States v. Cousins, 469 F.3d 572, 575 (6th Cir. 2006), but review the ultimate sentence for reasonableness. United States v. Rita, 127 S. Ct. 2456, 2465 (2007). Because a determination in favor of the government on its cross-appeal would moot Gonzalez’s sentencing argument, we will address the government’s argument first. The central issue here requires reconciling the parties’ stipulation of the drug quantity with the jury’s verdict and the district court’s findings. Prior to trial, the parties stipulated that the quantity of cocaine actually involved in the August 10, 2005 transaction was 995.6 grams. Gonzalez’s indictment specified that he had possessed or distributed (or had aided and abetted the possession or distribution of) more than 500 grams of cocaine. In addition to requiring a verdict on this charge, however, the district court presented the jury with a special verdict form that it was to complete if it found Gonzalez guilty. That verdict form stated: We, the jury . . . find that the amount of cocaine that the defendant Jomill Gonzalez knew was involved in the transaction on or about August 10, 2005 was: (Check only one of the following) ____ more than 500 grams of cocaine Nos. 06-3303/3387 United States v. Gonzalez Page 10 ____ less than 500 grams of cocaine The jury found Gonzalez guilty on the substantive count, but found that the amount of cocaine he “knew” to be involved in the August 10, 2005 transaction was less than 500 grams. The only way to reconcile these seemingly contradictory findings is to say that the jury determined that Gonzalez knowingly participated in the possession or distribution of what was in fact almost a kilogram of cocaine, but that he did not actually know that the quantity involved was anywhere near that large. See United States v. Arnold, 416 F.3d 349, 357-58 (5th Cir. 2005) (determining that potentially contradictory verdicts reached in a drug-conspiracy case were not ambiguous because the jury rendered its initial guilty verdict as to the substantive count without reference to quantity, and then considered the quantity in its response to the second interrogatory). At sentencing, the district court noted the parties’ stipulation as to the quantity of cocaine involved in the transaction, adding “[i]t’s as plain as the nose on your face or my face that it’s a kilo.” Nevertheless, the district court applied a “reasonable foreesability” test to determine the amount of cocaine to attribute to Gonzalez. Based on the testimony that Gonzalez’s prior drug transactions with Rodriguez involved only two-ounce quantities, the court concluded that the amount of cocaine reasonably foreseeable by Gonzalez to be involved in the August 10, 2005 transaction would also have been two ounces. The court then calculated Gonzalez’s Sentencing Guidelines range based on that two-ounce quantity. According to the government, the district court erred in applying the reasonableforeseeability standard. The text and commentary of § 1B1.3 of the Guidelines, combined with the substantive charge in this case, supports the government’s argument. Section 1B1.3(a)(1)(A) specifies that a defendant is responsible for “all acts and omissions committed, aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, procured, or wilfully caused by the defendant.” The Guidelines do not qualify this statement with a reasonable-forseeability standard. In contrast, § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) provides, in pertinent part, that, “in the case of a jointly undertaken criminal activity (a criminal plan, scheme, endeavor, or enterprise undertaken by the defendant in concert with others, whether or not charged as a conspiracy),” a defendant is also responsible for “all reasonably foreseeable acts and omissions of others in furtherance of the jointly undertaken criminal activity.” (Emphasis added.) Application Note 2 to U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 clarifies that “[t]he requirement of reasonable foreseeability applies only in respect to the conduct . . . of others . . . . It does not apply to conduct that the defendant personally undertakes, aides, [or] abets . . . .” For example, “a defendant who transports a suitcase knowing that it contains a controlled substance . . . is accountable for the controlled substance in the suitcase regardless of his knowledge or lack of knowledge of the actual type or amount of that controlled substance.” U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 cmt. n.2(a)(1). This example mirrors the factual scenario from a Second Circuit case, United States v. Imariagbe, 999 F.2d 706, 707 (2d Cir. 1993), where the defendant was held accountable for the full amount of the drugs found in a suitcase that he mistakenly believed held less, and is directly analogous to the scenario presented in the case before us. Gonzalez was neither charged with nor convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine. Instead, he was held responsible for his own acts as either a principal or as an aider and abetter of the August 10, 2005 drug transaction. Gonzalez’s sentence for that particular offense conduct must therefore be calculated under U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(A). Whether he “knew” the actual quantity of drugs involved (as the jury determined that he did not) or even whether he could have “reasonably foreseen” the actual quantity (as the district court determined that he did not) is simply irrelevant under both U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 and the penalty provisions of 21 U.S.C. § 841. See United States v. Villarce, 323 F.3d 435, 439 (6th Cir. 2003) (holding that “[i]ntent [regarding drug type and quantity] Nos. 06-3303/3387 United States v. Gonzalez Page 11 is . . . irrelevant to the penalty provisions of § 841(b), which require only that the specified drug types and quantities be “involv[ed]” in an offense”). Gonzalez responds by arguing that, because the government established that a conspiracy existed for purposes of Rule 801 as addressed in Part II.A. above, the district court was entitled to employ the “reasonable foreseeability” standard at sentencing. He asserts that the government “cannot have it both ways” by establishing that Gonzalez was a conspirator for the purpose of Rule 801, but then holding him accountable as a principal or as an aider and abetter for the purpose of sentencing. Gonzalez appears to read U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3 as providing that if a criminal act is part of a conspiracy—charged or uncharged—then the district court may apply the more lenient “reasonable foreseeability” standard at sentencing. Gonzalez’s argument is problematic for several reasons. First, Gonzalez cites no authority to support it. The second problem is that the distinction between § 1B1.3(a)(1)(A) (which does not include the reasonably foreseeable standard) and U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) (which does) focuses not on whether the criminal act in question took place in the context of a conspiracy, but rather on whether the criminal act was committed “by the defendant” as opposed to by “others.” The rationale behind this distinction between the two subsections is made all the more apparent by the fact that they are worded in the conjunctive—that is, a defendant is responsible both for his own criminal acts under §1B1.3(a)(1)(A) and for the reasonably foreseeable criminal acts of others with whom he conspires in relation to the charged offense under § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B). In effect, therefore, the government can “have it both ways.” Finally, Gonzalez provides no logical explanation for why the fact that a defendant’s own criminal act happens to be part of a larger conspiracy should result in a smaller sentence rather than a greater one. The district court acknowledged, based on the parties’ stipulation, that the actual quantity of cocaine involved in the August 10, 2005 transaction was 995.6 grams. It went on, however, to erroneously take into account both the jury’s finding as to what quantity of drugs Gonzalez “knew” to have been involved in the transaction, and its own finding regarding what quantity should have been “reasonably foreseeable” to him. The court instead should have calculated Gonzalez’s sentence under the relevant statutory and Guidelines provisions as an offense involving 995.6 grams of cocaine. As the government points out, that quantity carries a mandatory-minimum sentence of five years’ imprisonment pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(B). The application of this mandatory minimum creates no Apprendi problem, moreover, because five years does not exceed the statutory maximum of twenty years’ imprisonment that can be imposed for an unspecified quantity of cocaine under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1)(C). See United States v. Wade, 318 F.3d 698, 705 (6th Cir. 2003) (holding that Harris v. United States, 536 U.S. 545, 560-63 (2002), confined the constitutional requirements of Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), to factors that increase a defendant’s sentence beyond the otherwise-applicable statutory maximum). Because we agree with the government that the district court erred in determining Gonzalez’s sentence, we have no need to address Gonzalez’s claim regarding the district court’s upward variance under the Guidelines. His resentencing on remand will instead be governed by the principles set forth in this opinion. Nos. 06-3303/3387 United States v. Gonzalez Page 12