Court Opinion

ID: 9962444
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-04-23 17:00:59.517343+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:20:53.666729
License: Public Domain

NOT PRECEDENTIAL

                       UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
                            FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT
                                 ____________

                                       No. 23-1497
                                       ___________

                            UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

                                             v.

                                  NOAH LANDFRIED,
                                            Appellant
                                    ____________

                     On Appeal from the United States District Court
                        for the Western District of Pennsylvania
                              (D.C. No. 2-19-cr-00008-001)
                      District Judge: Honorable J. Nicholas Ranjan
                                      ____________

                      Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a)
                                    April 18, 2024

              Before: HARDIMAN, SMITH, and FISHER, Circuit Judges.

                                  (Filed: April 23, 2024)

                                      ____________

                                        OPINION *
                                      ____________

*
 This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not
constitute binding precedent.
HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge.

       Noah Landfried appeals his judgment of sentence, claiming the District Court

erred in calculating the total drug weight for which he was responsible under the United

States Sentencing Guidelines. We will affirm.

                                              I

       Soon after he was released in 2017 from a prison sentence for conspiring to

distribute thousands of pounds of marijuana, Landfried built a vast drug-trafficking

empire in western Pennsylvania that distributed heroin, fentanyl, oxycodone, and K2. He

worked closely with various co-conspirators, including James Perry, who was responsible

for diluting, repackaging, and delivering Landfried’s cocaine. With the assistance of

Michel Cercone, a licensed realtor, Landfried used some of his drug proceeds to buy

residential properties which he then rented to friends or used to store drugs.

       After a federal investigation uncovered evidence of Landfried’s criminal

enterprise, he was indicted for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to

distribute Schedule I, II, and III controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846;

conspiracy to commit money laundering, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h); and

possession with intent to distribute and distribution of fentanyl and heroin, in violation of

21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B)(vi), and (b)(1)(C).

       In December 2021, Landfried was tried before a jury along with Cercone and

Anthony Smith, a co-conspirator who distributed K2 that he received from Landfried.

The jury convicted Landfried on all counts alleged against him in the superseding

                                              2
indictment.

       At sentencing, Landfried objected to the drug-quantity calculation in the

Presentence Investigation Report: 13,350.42 kilograms of converted drug weight based

on 55 kilograms of cocaine, 92 grams of fentanyl, 100 grams of heroin, 1,252 grams of

synthetic cannabinoid, and 270 grams of oxycodone. The cocaine alone accounted for

11,000 kilograms of converted drug weight. The District Court overruled Landfried’s

objection, which resulted in a range of 10,000 to 30,000 kilograms of converted drug

weight under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(3). That range yielded a base offense level of 34, and

various enhancements resulted in a total offense level of 43. So Landfried’s advisory

Guidelines range was life. The District Court varied downward, sentencing him to 300

months’ imprisonment followed by 10 years’ supervised release. Landfried timely

appealed, 1 challenging only his sentence.

                                              II

       Landfried claims the District Court erred in calculating his base offense level

because the basis for its calculation lacked sufficient indicia of reliability. Landfried

preserved this argument at sentencing, so we review the District Court’s drug-quantity

determinations for clear error. United States v. Diaz, 951 F.3d 148, 159 (3d Cir. 2020).

       In calculating the amount of cocaine attributable to Landfried, the District Court

determined the amount reasonably foreseeable to him to be 55 kilograms. See U.S.S.G.

§ 1B1.3, cmt. n.3(D). It relied on estimates provided at trial by Perry, who testified that

1
 The District Court had jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3231. We have jurisdiction under
28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742.
                                              3
he observed Landfried obtain “about 35” kilograms of cocaine from one source and

“anywhere from 20 to 30” kilograms from a second source. App. 401–02.

       Landfried argues that Perry’s testimony “was suspect at best and greatly

exaggerated at worst.” Landfried Br. 21. He emphasizes that Perry: (1) accepted

responsibility for only five kilograms of cocaine in his plea agreement; and (2) admitted

he was seeking leniency in exchange for his testimony. Landfried’s counsel cross-

examined Perry extensively about both issues, but the District Court concluded that

Perry’s estimates were reliable. It did not err in doing so. As the District Court

persuasively reasoned, “[t]here is nothing inconsistent with . . . Perry admitting

responsibility for a minimum amount of cocaine that falls below the testimony he later

provided,” as plea bargains can “simply reflect the relative risks as to the strength or

weakness of the evidence had the case gone to trial.” United States v. Landfried, 2022

WL 3370041, at *4 & n.2 (W.D. Pa. Aug. 16, 2022); see also Brady v. United States, 397

U.S. 742, 752 (1970) (describing the “mutuality of advantage” to plea bargaining). And

the District Court’s assessment of Perry’s credibility is “entitled to great deference at the

appellate level.” United States v. Givan, 320 F.3d 452, 464 (3d Cir. 2003) (citation

omitted). For these reasons, the District Court’s conclusion was at least “plausible” and

thus not clearly erroneous. Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 574 (1985).

       Landfried also argues that “the quantities [Perry] supplied were just ‘from the top

of his head’ and were not based on clear facts.” Landfried Br. 24. But in calculating drug

quantities, “a degree of estimation is sometimes necessary.” United States v. Gibbs, 190

F.3d 188, 203 (3d Cir. 1999); see U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 cmt. n.5 (“Where there is no drug

                                              4
seizure or the amount seized does not reflect the scale of the offense, the court shall

approximate the quantity of the controlled substance.”). And the District Court may rely

on an estimate in this context so long as it has “sufficient indicia of reliability,” which

can be based on “the provision of facts and details,” “corroboration by or consistency

with other evidence, or the opportunity for cross-examination.” United States v. Freeman,

763 F.3d 322, 337 (3d Cir. 2014) (citations omitted). Each of these indicia was present

here.

        Perry identified several customers to whom he had personally delivered cocaine—

approximately 28 to 33 kilograms—for Landfried. Because this number is far lower than

what Perry recalled seeing Landfried himself obtain (55 to 65 kilograms), Landfried

suggests the District Court clearly erred by finding him responsible for the higher

amount. But Perry explained that his estimate of the amount of cocaine he delivered was

just a subset of the cocaine he saw Landfried receive. See App. 433 (“That’s about it that

I delivered to.”). And Perry’s estimate of the 28 to 33 kilograms he remembers

delivering, together with additional estimates totaling 27 to 34 kilograms provided

through the testimony of other witnesses at trial and sentencing, supports the aggregate

amount of 55 kilograms found by the District Court. Not only did Landfried’s counsel

have the opportunity to cross-examine all of the witnesses testifying to these estimates,

but he did so for almost all of them. For these reasons, the District Court’s calculation of

the quantity of cocaine attributable to Landfried was not clearly erroneous. Because the

                                              5
55 kilograms of cocaine alone suffice to support a base offense level of 34, 2 we need not

address Landfried’s challenges to the District Court’s other drug-quantity calculations, as

any errors that may have been made as to those calculations would be harmless. See Diaz,

951 F.3d at 159.

                                      *      *      *

       For the reasons stated, we will affirm the judgment of the District Court.

2
 Applying U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1, cmt. n.8(D), 1 gram of cocaine equals 200 grams of
converted drug weight, so 55 kilograms of cocaine equals 11,000 kilograms of converted
drug weight—a quantity within the range of 10,000 to 30,000 kilograms for a base
offense level of 34 under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(3).
                                             6