Court Opinion

ID: 9483016
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 09:07:52.857624+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:49:21.580380
License: Public Domain

JOHN R. BROWN, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring and dissenting in part. 
I concur fully in the court’s decision to affirm the conviction. I respectfully dissent, however, in the court’s determination of the controlled substance’s weight and in the finding that the controlled substance was in fact cocaine and not cocaine base.

A Suitcase Mix or A Cocaine Mix

As in this court’s earlier decision in Mahecha-Onofre,7 the court reads Chapman 8 to require that the weight of the suitcase material be included as part of the “mixture” or “substance” for sentencing purposes. I disagree.
I am keenly aware that, consistent with the practices of the First Circuit, as a visiting judge, I am bound the same as a First Circuit judge by the court’s prior decisions. But, as would a judge in active service, I have the privilege, if not the duty, to point out deficiencies in a prior decision and to encourage en banc review—a situation in which again the role of a visiting judge is unique in the sense that he or she is not qualified either to request or cast a full vote for en banc review, and certainly never participate in the en banc decision to reject the challenged action. It is in that spirit that my compulsory affirmance translates into a dissent.
Like the Sixth9 and Eleventh10 Circuits, I would interpret Chapman as applying only to carrier mediums that are usable, consumable, and which make the drug ready for wholesale or retail distribution. *1132The Supreme Court, in Chapman, specifically stated:
Congress adopted a market-oriented approach to punish drug-trafficking, under which the total quantity of what is distributed, rather than the amount of pure drug involved, is used to determine the length of sentence.11
Although the Supreme Court probably did not contemplate the astounding facts found here,12 their intent was sufficiently evident in reasoning that:
LSD cannot be distinguished from the blotter paper, nor easily separated from it. Like cutting agents used with other drugs that are ingested, the blotter paper, gel or sugar cube carrying LSD can be and often is ingested with the drug.... The term [“mixture”] does not include LSD in a bottle, or LSD in a car, because the drug is easily distinguished from, and separated from, such a ‘container.’ 13
The suitcases in this case were more like traditional containers than ingestible carriers. The two suitcases were black in color and made of fiberglass, each weighing about nine kilograms, or approximately 18 pounds, when empty. The controlled substance was separated from the suitcase fabric, first, by physically removing all suitcase attachments resulting in “net weights” of 6.9 and 7.15 kilograms, and,' second, via various chemical processes.14
The cocaine was not usable as long as it was mixed with the fiberglass suitcase material. It could not be swallowed, snorted or otherwise absorbed into the body. Further, the record does not show that there was any likelihood that the fiberglass and cocaine mixture would be sold or that it was even marketable on the retail or wholesale cocaine market, either prior to or after the chemical extraction by DEA Chemist Vallejo. In fact, it is for these very reasons that Chemist Vallejo first removed the suitcases’ metal frames before determining the “net weight” of the mixture.15 Similarly, all other suitcase materials should have been separated from the cocaine before weighing the mixture.
Because sentences are fixed largely by the weight of the drug sold or used, it makes no physical or legal sense to permit non-usable carrier mediums to play such a determining role in denying a person of his liberty. To the contrary, this is more than a simple matter of chemical solutions and resulting mixtures. Here, using the weight of the entire fiberglass mixture in*1133creased Lopez-Gil’s sentence by more than five years.16 As have the Sixth and Eleventh Circuits, I would conclude that the total weight of the drug mixture should be counted for sentencing purposes, only when the total mixture is in usable, distributive form, i.e., when it is capable of being smoked, inhaled or otherwise swallowed or consumed.

Cocaine, Cocaine Base & Crack Legal or Chemical Problem

During the sentencing phase of the trial, DEA Chemist Vallejo identified the controlled substance as cocaine base. She also testified that the substance “was not crack.” (Sent. Tr. at 5). Finding this testimony contradictory, the court first characterizes the question of “what is cocaine base” as a legal one, and then finds as a matter of law that cocaine base equals crack cocaine.
Neither the statute, 21 U.S.C. § 841(b), nor the Sentencing Guidelines define the term “cocaine base.” Although the majority cites Shaw17 and Barnes18 for the proposition that cocaine base equals crack, I, like the Government, would read these cases as merely holding that cocaine base includes crack cocaine.
Further, this question was not a legal issue to be decided by a panel of judges, but rather a fact question for the trial judge. It was up to the trial judge to make a specific factual finding as to the contents of the drug mixture, whether it be cocaine or cocaine base. Again, whether Lopez-Gil serves an extra fourteen years in prison turns on this determination,19 and deserves more than blanket reliance upon what one or more appellate courts have stated, as Article III wisdom does not include fine chemical distinctions.
Because the trial court failed to make such a finding, and the court finds no fault with this procedure, I again dissent. I would remand this case to the district court to determine with such factual information as is available whether the substance was cocaine or cocaine base and for potential resentencing.

. United States v. Mahecha-Onofre, 936 F.2d 623 (1st Cir.1991).

. Chapman v. United States, — U.S. -, 111 S.Ct. 1919, 114 L.Ed.2d 524 (1991).

. See United States v. Jennings & Stepp, 945 F.2d 129 (6th Cir.1991) (adopting the "market-oriented” approach, the court held that the poisonous and other unusable parts of the methamphetamine mixture should not have been counted for sentencing purposes).

. See United States v. Roiande-Gabriel, 938 F.2d 1231 (11th Cir.1991) (the court held that the weight of the unusable non-drug liquid in which the cocaine was found should not have been used in calculating the base offense level).

. Id. Ill S.Ct. at 1926 (emphasis added).

. The court even recognized that "[wjhile hypothetical cases can be imagined involving heavy carriers and very little LSD, those cases are of no import in considering a claim by persons such as petitioners, who used a standard LSD carrier." Id. Ill S.Ct. at 1928.

. Id. Ill S.Ct. at 1926.

. Specifically, DEA Chemist Vallejo testified that in order to separate the controlled substance from the fiberglass suitcase material, she performed the following procedure on the two suitcases:
1) Vallejo weighed the suitcases, including their metal frames, handles, wheels and any labels affixed to the suitcase, and arrived at “gross weights” of 8.75 and 9 kilograms;
2) Vallejo disassembled the suitcases, by removing the frames, wheels, handles, and rubber linings, and peeling off any labels. The remaining suitcase bodies were weighed and calculated to have “net weights" of 6.9 and 7.15 kilograms, totalling 14.05 kilograms. Vallejo next cut the suitcase sides into several sections, creating a kind of “sawdust;”
3)After collecting the "sawdust” mixture, Vallejo extracted the controlled substance from the mixture by combining it with a chloroform solvent, which separated most of the fiberglass resin from the controlled substance. She then used methanol and ether to clean and crystallize the substance. After several tests using the gas chromatograph and mass spectrometer, Vallejo arrived at respective purities of 28% and 9.3% for the mixture. Multiplying the "net weights” of 6.9 and 7.15 kilograms by 28% and 9.3%, respectively, Vallejo arrived at a second "net weight” for each suitcase, this time representing the weight of the pure cocaine: 1932 grams for the first suitcase and 665 grams for the second suitcase, totalling 2597 grams.
See Trial Tr. at 104-14.

. Under Mahecha-Onojre, see n. 1, the resulting mix of cocaine and fiberglass material was not usable in any way as a narcotic. One wonders why, out of some notion of fairness, the weight of the metal frames was excluded in calculating "net weight.” The only distinguishing factor between the fiberglass and the metal seems to be that the metal is non-chewable.

. The Sentencing Table used to compute criminal sentences has two primary components: (i) the Offense Level (1-43) forms the vertical axis and is determined by the kind and weight of controlled substance; and (ii) the Criminal History Category forms the horizontal axis. Points are attributed in this latter category based upon length and number of prior sentences, as well as factors such as whether the offense was committed while the defendant was on probation or escape status. The intersection of the Offense Level and Criminal History Category is the Guideline Range in months of imprisonment.
In this case, Lopez-Gil was sentenced to concurrent sentences of 292 months for each count under Offense Level 40, based upon the trial court’s conclusion that the controlled substance was cocaine base and that its total weight was 14.050 kilograms. Had the trial court used only the weight of the cocaine, a total of 2597 grams. as opposed to the entire mixture, Lopez-Gil would have been sentenced under Offense Level 38 to concurrent sentences of only 235 months, a difference of about five years.

. United States v. Shaw, 936 F.2d 412 (9th Cir.1991).

. United States v. Barnes, 890 F.2d 545 (1st Cir.1989).

. Using a total weight of 14.050 kilograms, the weight that the majority accepts as correct, Lopez-Gil faces concurrent sentences of 292 months under Offense Level 40, assuming the substance is cocaine base. If the substance can be categorized as cocaine, however, Lopez-Gil will be sentenced for only 121 months under Offense Level 32.