Court Opinion

ID: 9479838
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 07:30:17.141337+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:47:18.659871
License: Public Domain

McMILLIAN, Circuit Judge,
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
While I concur in Parts II and IV of the majority opinion, I respectfully dissent *730from Part III. In Part III the majority opinion holds that the district court’s finding that the sales of cocaine to Mann were part of the same course of conduct or common scheme as the cocaine sales and conspiracy for which Keener was convicted is not clearly erroneous. Op. at 728. If the district court had made such a finding, I would agree that, on the basis of the record in this case, such a finding would not be clearly erroneous. However, the district court did not make such a finding. For this reason, I would reverse Keener’s sentence and remand his case to the district court for further fact-finding and resen-tencing.
Under the Sentencing Guidelines, drugs involved in criminal acts that were not part of the offense for which the defendant was convicted but “were part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the offense of conviction” must be included in the amount used to calculate the base offense level. Guidelines § 1B1.3(a)(2). At the sentencing hearing the government sought to prove Keener’s involvement in additional cocaine sales through the testimony of John Mann. On the basis of Mann’s testimony, the district court found, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Keener and Gooden sold Mann two kilos of cocaine sometime during the early months of 1988. Report of Statement of Reasons for Imposing Sentence, Doc. No. 45, at 2, United States v. Keener, No. 88-05001-01-CR-SW-4 (W.D.Mo. Nov. 30, 1988).
The district court did not, however, make the further finding that these additional cocaine sales to Mann were part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the offenses for which Keener was convicted. Finding that the additional cocaine sales were “part of a common scheme or plan or course of conduct” was a prerequisite to adding together the quantities of cocaine. Under Guidelines § 1B1.3(a)(2),
[sjentenee must be based on the sales that were part of one ‘common scheme or plan’ (such as a single conspiracy) or a single ‘course of conduct’ (the unilateral equivalent to the conspiracy). Offenses of the same kind, but not encompassed in the same course of conduct or plan, are excluded.
United States v. White, 888 F.2d 490, 500 (7th Cir.1989) (emphasis in original); see also United States v. Allen, 886 F.2d 143, 145-46 (8th Cir.1989). Here, the district court did not address this issue in its statement of reasons, and, unlike the majority, I am unwilling to infer that the district court impliedly made such a finding. In addition, although I agree with the majority opinion that, on the basis of the record in this case, the district court could have found that the additional cocaine sales were part of either the cocaine sales or the conspiracy for which Keener was convicted, Op. at 728-729, such fact-finding is a task for the district court in the first instance.
Although only Keener raised this issue on appeal, the district court also determined Gooden’s base offense level on the basis of the additional cocaine sales to Mann. Because the same error undermines the validity of the sentence imposed in each case, in the interests of justice and consistent application of the Sentencing Guidelines, I would reverse both sentences and remand the cases to the district court for further fact-finding and resentencing.