Court Opinion

ID: 9496258
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:21:48.845762+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:27.544218
License: Public Domain

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
Defendant raised no hearsay objection of any kind at his sentencing hearing, including no objection to Rush’s testimony, and indeed stipulated to the admission of extensive grand jury testimony, all of it hearsay. He did not raise the hearsay issue before the district court on Ms resen-tencing after remand following Apprendi. He did not raise the issue in his appellate briefs.
The majority holds that defendant did not forfeit or waive the issue because in his Supplement to Sentencing Memorandum and Objections (to the presentence report) he raised a question as to the reliability of Rush’s nephews’ hearsay statements. However, he raised no objection to their admissibility. There was nothing to alert the district court to the present hearsay issue. The issue was first raised by this court at oral argument. Defendant is therefore limited to plain error review. Federal Rule of Evidence 103(d). To establish plain error, a claimant must show that there is “(1) error, (2) that is plain, ... (3) that affects substantial rights,” and (4) that “seriously affect[s] the fairness, integrity, or public reputation of judicial proceedings.” United States v. Cotton, 535 U.S. 625, 631, 122 S.Ct. 1781, 152 L.Ed.2d 860 (2002) (internal quotation marks omitted); Johnson v. United States, 520 U.S. 461, 466-67, 117 S.Ct. 1544, 137 L.Ed.2d 718 (1997).
The district court’s reliance on Orlando Rush’s testimony was not plain error because Rush’s testimony was not plainly hearsay. Federal Rule of Evidence 801(d)(2)(E) provides that a statement is not hearsay if it is “a statement by a co-conspirator of a party during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy.” Rush’s nephews bagged illegal drugs for Darwich, and thus were co-conspirators. The majority agrees that Rush was a co-conspirator since he admitted to re-selling drugs purchased from Darwich. He also aided the conspiracy by providing transportation for his nephews to Darwich’s home with knowledge that they were paid to bag drugs there. Although we have no specific finding that the nephews’ statements were made in furtherance of the conspiracy, it would not have been plain error for the district court to so find. A statement is made in furtherance of a conspiracy if it is intended to promote the objectives of the conspiracy. United States v. Hamilton, 689 F.2d 1262, 1270 (6th Cir.1982). This includes statements “made to keep a conspirator abreast of a co-conspirator’s activities.... ” United States v. Rios, 842 F.2d 868, 874 (6th Cir.1988) (citing United States v. Layton, 720 F.2d 548, 557 (9th Cir.1983) (internal quotation marks omitted)). Rush’s nephews kept Rush, a co-conspirator, apprised of the quantity of drugs they were bagging for Darwich. We have affirmed a district court’s ruling in a similar instance in an unpublished decision, United States v. Brooks, 41 Fed.Appx. 718, 723, 2002 WL 1021904 (6th Cir.2002) In Brooks, the district court admitted the statements of a co-conspirator that he and the defendant had “gone to Knoxville to cook some methamphetamine.” Id. We held that, because such statements could be interpreted as keeping the listener abreast of the activities of the conspirators, they were admissible under Rule 801(d)(2)(E). Id. Based on this case law, it would not have been plain error to hold that Rush’s statements were admissible non-hearsay.
Orlando Rush’s testimony about his nephews’ statements is alone sufficient to affirm both the 50 kilograms beyond a *669reasonable doubt and 100 kilograms by a preponderance of the evidence. Rush testified that his nephews told him they bagged one pound per day from “some time” in 1996 until he surrendered in 1998 — dates roughly consistent with the 104 week span within the conspiracy. He testified he knew that the nephews worked about every night since he dropped them off about every day. Based on the five-day-per-week assumption, this evidence alone supports a finding of 236 kilograms of marijuana.1
Because this evidence is more than sufficient to insulate the district court’s quantity calculation from possible Apprendi error, I would not need to reach the question of whether reliance on Agent Dodge’s testimony about the conspiracy and transcripts of the grand jury proceedings would have been plain error. Any hypothetical error is harmless. However, I cannot see how accepting a stipulation to grand jury testimony can be plain error or even error under the circumstances here.
Defendant cannot establish that his rights are substantially affected or the fairness of the proceedings significantly affected by any error here, even if one found it did occur. After the remand, the defendant and the government sought to have the district court accept a joint stipulation that the government would be able to prove that defendant trafficked between 80 and 100 kilograms of marijuana.
While the district judge rejected the stipulation, holding that it was his responsibility under the sentencing guidelines to determine the amount, and instead conducted the evidentiary hearing,2 that defendant was willing to stipulate to that amount is persuasive that neither his rights nor the fairness and integrity of the proceeding are substantially affected by a finding of 50 kilograms.3
For the foregoing reasons, I dissent from this portion of the court’s decision.

. Had the defendant objected to Rush's hearsay testimony or not stipulated to Agent Dodge’s testimony or the grand jury transcripts, there is at least some indication in the record that one of the nephews could have been called as a witness. (J.A. 129)

. The stipulation would have capped the sentence under the cap in the plea agreement.

. Further, based on Tom Smith’s testimony, up to 79 kilograms can be attributed to Dar-wich based on nickel bag sales alone. Smith testified that 90 percent of Canfield Market's customers purchased nickel bags. His testimony established that between 65 and 70 customers came to the market during his shift, which was from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., closing time. He further testified that the market typically opened at 11:00 a.m. Assuming a relatively constant rate of patronage throughout the day, the Canfield Market had approximately 16 customers per hour, and 160 customers per day. If 90 percent of its 160 customers per day bought one-gram nickel bags five days per week, then over the course of the conspiracy Darwich sold 79 kilograms in nickel bags alone.