Court Opinion

ID: 9490835
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:55:51.412304+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:20.521207
License: Public Domain

MERRITT, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree with Judge Moore in her majority opinion that the relevant conduct adjustment under § lB1.3(a)(2) of the Guidelines was inappropriate, but I certainly do not agree that the upward adjustment for possession of a firearm under § 2D1.1(b)(1) was a mistake. Section 2Dl.l(b)(l) requires for offenses involving drugs an- adjustment as follows, “if a dangerous weapon (including a firearm) was possessed, increase by 2 levels.” Here the only testimony at trial showed that of the 39 guns possessed by the defendant there were several loaded guns in the defendant’s bedroom where the officers discovered defendant and his companion in bed near cocaine, a large amount of cash and marijuana hidden in the adjacent room. A loaded Browning high-power semi-automatic pistol was in an open bag by the bed. A loaded Winchester 12-gauge semi-automatic shotgun was leaning against a gun case in the bedroom. A loaded .380 Makarov semi-automatic pistol was on a table next to defendant’s bed, and a small loaded .22 caliber Iver Johnson semiautomatic pistol was in a pair of defendant’s shorts by the bed. Surely it cannot be argued that the defendant did not “possess” these weapons in connection with or in relation to the drug business that he was carrying on.
Our previous decision remanded the case to the District Court “for further proceedings in which the parties can have the opportunity to focus on the facts and law relevant to proving that Moore used or carried a firearm during and in relation to his drug trafficking offense.” On remand that is exactly what the District Court did. It followed the remand order. It “focused” on the “firearms during and in relation to” the drug offense. It found that the defendant did not carry or use the firearms in committing the offense, but it found that the defendant “possessed” the firearms in relation to the drug business and particularly in relation to the drugs charged in this case. The Sentencing Guidelines mandate this is not discretionary under the Guidelines a two level enhancement. Had I been the‘district judge, I would have done the same thing as District Judge Jordan did here because under the Guidelines this was his duty. The language of our previous decision did not forbid such a firearms enhancement, but rather it tells the District Court to “focus on the firearm in relation to the drug offense.”
It would have been improper for the District Court at the first sentencing to sentence the defendant for a five year mandatory term under § 924(c)(1) for using the firearm in connection with the drug offense and then in addition adjust the sentence upward by two levels under § 2D1.1(b)(1). But having set aside the § 924(c)(1) conviction, it was incumbent on the district judge in focusing on the firearms to see .if the two level upward adjustment should be imposed. Our Court would have been in error should it have attempted to take away from the district judge this authority on remand, and I do not see any language in the remand order that tells Judge Jordan not to consider this. The majority opinion does not attempt to justify its ruling by pointing to any particular lan*601guage forbidding the district court from carrying out its responsibilities under the Sentencing Guidelines. In light , of the broad “focus” language of the remand order, I see no reason to upset the two level enhancement imposed by Judge Jordan for the possession of a firearm in connection with the drug offense.