State v. Osborne

715 N.W.2d 436, 2006 Minn. LEXIS 357, 2006 WL 1549940
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJune 8, 2006
DocketC1-03-253
StatusPublished
Cited by74 cases

This text of 715 N.W.2d 436 (State v. Osborne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Osborne, 715 N.W.2d 436, 2006 Minn. LEXIS 357, 2006 WL 1549940 (Mich. 2006).

Opinions

OPINION

HANSON, Justice.

An Olmsted County jury found respondent Anthony Osborne, Sr., guilty of 28 counts of drug-related offenses. The district court entered judgment of conviction on 23 counts and sentenced Osborne on 21 of those counts, resulting in an aggregate 268-month sentence that included three upward departures. Osborne appealed his conviction and sentence. The Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed Osborne’s conviction and sentence, and we denied review. After the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), we granted Osborne’s motion to reopen the direct appeal of his sentence for review of an alleged Blakely error and remanded the case to the court of appeals. The court of appeals reversed Osborne’s sentence on the basis of Blakely and remanded to the district court. The state appeals that reversal, arguing that Osborne forfeited his Blakely claim for purposes of appeal by failing to raise the claim in the district court. We affirm the court of appeals.

[439]*439Based on a series of controlled drug buys conducted by the Rochester Police Department, Osborne was charged in October 2001 with 28 counts of drug-related offenses. The charges included racketeering, conspiracy to commit controlled substance crime in the first degree, controlled substance crime in the third degree, and two counts of solicitation of a juvenile.1 The charges resulted from a three-year police investigation of a drug-trafficking organization that imported drugs from Chicago for sale in Rochester. Osborne was alleged to have controlled this drug-trafficking organization, while his sons and others assisted with sales in the Rochester area. The jury found Osborne guilty on all 28 counts.

At his sentencing hearing, Osborne argued against upward departures from the sentencing guidelines, asserting that any upward departure would exaggerate the criminality of his offenses. The district court imposed a governing sentence of 225 months for count 3 — importing controlled substances across state borders. That sentence reflected an upward durational departure of 67 months from the presumptive sentence of 158 months. Nineteen sentences were made to run concurrently with the governing sentence. The court also imposed upward durational departures for count 2 — first degree conspiracy to commit a controlled substance crime, and count 27 — the first conviction of solicitation of a juvenile. Because these latter two sentences ran concurrently with the sentence for count 3, they did not increase the length of Osborne’s actual sentence. Finally, the court imposed a 43-month consecutive sentence for count 28 — the second conviction of solicitation of a juvenile. This 43-month consecutive sentence was not an upward departure.2

At Osborne’s sentencing hearing, the district court stated that the court’s Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission (MSGC) report “will specify the additional grounds and elaborate on those grounds, including the * * * level of sophistication apparent here with respect to this particular defendant in the organization and in his conduct” including the degree of sophistication, large number of transactions involving cocaine and heroin, and the number of people involved. The court also stated that the sentences imposed were more “appropriate, reasonable and equitable than the presumptive sentence” because

in the aggregate the defendant was a prime mover in a major controlled substance offense * * * involving trafficking under circumstances much more onerous in the aggregate than the usual offense and well beyond what is necessary to meet the elements of any of the crimes of conviction in this case, exceeding the prerequisites of the label “major controlled substance offense.”

Without any upward departures, Osborne’s total sentence would have been 201 months, but because the court departed upward, Osborne’s total sentence was 268 months.

The district court’s MSGC report identified the specific factors on which the upward departures were based. For the 67-month upward departure on count 3, the aggravating factors identified in the report were that (1) Osborne “committed crime as part [of] a group of three or more persons who all actively participated in the crime,” [440]*440and (2) the crime was a “major controlled substance crime” involving “high position in drug distribution hierarchy,” “high degree sophistieation/lengthy period of time,” and “use of position/status.”

The district court identified two aggravating factors for its upward departure on count 2:(1) Osborne “committed crime as part [of] a group of three or more persons who all actively participated in the crime,” and (2) the crime was a “major controlled substance crime” involving “3 or more separate transactions,” “sale quantities substantially larger than personal use,” “high position in drug distribution hierarchy,” and “high degree sophistication/lengthy period of time.”

Finally, the district court identified four aggravating factors for its upward departure on count 27:(1) the juvenile “victim was particularly vulnerable — codefendant son,” (2) Osborne “committed crime as part [of] a group of three or more persons who all actively participated in the crime,” (3) the crime was a “major controlled substance crime” involving “3 or more separate transactions,” “involved manufacture for use by others,” “high position in drug distribution hierarchy,” “high degree sophistication/lengthy period of time,” and “use of position/status,” and (4) “position of authority, superiority, confidence or trust — father/son.”

Osborne appealed his sentence to the court of appeals, arguing that the district court abused its discretion because the aggravating factors “duplicated considerations incorporated in statutes relating to drug crimes and presumptive sentences.” State v. Osborne, No. C1-03-253, 2004 WL 333469, at *6 (Minn.App. Feb. 24, 2004). The court of appeals rejected Osborne’s argument and affirmed the district court. Id. at *8. The court of appeals essentially held that because the district court found that the factors enumerated in Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines II.D.2.b(5) were met, substantial and compelling circumstances were present and the district court did not abuse its discretion in imposing upward departures. Id. The court of appeals did not directly address Osborne’s argument that the factors relied upon for the departures duplicated other sentencing considerations.

Osborne then filed a petition for review, which we denied. During the time within which Osborne could petition the United States Supreme Court for certiorari, Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), was decided. The rule established by Blakely is that, other than a prior conviction, any fact that is necessary to support a sentence exceeding the maximum au thorized by the facts established by a plea of guilty or a jury verdict must be admitted to by the defendant or proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 244, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005); State v. Houston, 702 N.W.2d 268, 271 (Minn.2005).

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Bluebook (online)
715 N.W.2d 436, 2006 Minn. LEXIS 357, 2006 WL 1549940, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-osborne-minn-2006.