Opinion ID: 792865
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Applicable Version of the Sentencing Guidelines

Text: 18 This court previously has determined that, when a defendant is convicted of an offense that commenced before but continued after the enactment of an amendment to the Sentencing Guidelines, he shall be subject to the amended version of the Guidelines at sentencing. 7 See United States v. Parolin, 239 F.3d 922, 926 n. 2 (7th Cir.2001) (upholding the district court's application of the amended Guidelines, given that the defendant engaged in conduct subsequent to the effective date of the 1995 amendments). 8 This rule holds particular force in a conspiracy case, where, as we noted in United States v. Couch, the crime typically is not a singular, discrete offense that occurs at a point in time and fades into the past but rather represents an ongoing course of criminal conduct. 28 F.3d 711, 714 (7th Cir.1994). A defendant convicted of conspiracy may be sentenced under a version of the Guidelines enacted at any time prior to his withdrawal from the conspiracy — even if he took part in no overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy post-enactment. Withdrawal requires an affirmative act to either defeat or disavow the purposes of the conspiracy, such as making a full confession to the authorities or communicating to co-conspirators that one has abandoned the enterprise. See United States v. Hall, 212 F.3d 1016, 1023 (7th Cir.2000) (holding that, because the defendant did not affirmatively disavow[] the purposes of the conspiracy before the guideline amendments became effective, he was subject to those Guidelines at sentencing) (emphasis removed). 9 19 We therefore turn to consider the district court's factual finding that Mr. Vaughn did not withdraw from the conspiracy prior to November 1, 2001 — a finding that we review deferentially and shall overturn only if clearly erroneous. See United States v. Julian, 427 F.3d 471, 489 (7th Cir.2005). There is ample evidence supporting the district court's conclusion that Mr. Vaughn's criminal conduct, including his participation in the conspiracy, continued well past the effective date of the 2001 Guidelines. As Mr. Vaughn points out, by November 1, 2001, many goals of the conspiracy already had been accomplished. For example, Mr. Vaughn had: (1) accepted the transmittal of most of the stolen checks from his co-conspirators in California; (2) opened the first account at Wells Fargo; (3) deposited into that account the vast majority of the stolen funds, totaling $388,378.26; and (4) recruited various accomplices. Nevertheless, he remained a member of the conspiracy and acted to further this conspiracy after the effective date of the 2001 Guidelines, as well. In 2002, he recruited another accomplice, his niece Tominka Vaughn. He continued to receive treasury checks through July 2002 from his co-conspirators. He opened the second checking account at Wells Fargo under a fictitious name in March 2002, into which he deposited $16,023.47 in stolen money. He opened a third account in June 2002, this time at Bank One, under a fictitious name; and he fraudulently endorsed and deposited $24,773.64 in stolen treasury checks into that account. In light of the plethora of evidence demonstrating that Mr. Vaughn's criminal conduct straddled two versions of the Sentencing Guidelines, and the general practice of applying the version of the Guidelines in effect at the time of sentencing, we hold that the district court did not err in calculating Mr. Vaughn's guideline range under the 2001 Guidelines.