UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Cheryl PUTRA, Defendant-Appellant

78 F.3d 1386, 96 Daily Journal DAR 2489, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1477, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 3739, 1996 WL 89105
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedMarch 5, 1996
Docket94-10040
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 78 F.3d 1386 (UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Cheryl PUTRA, Defendant-Appellant) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Cheryl PUTRA, Defendant-Appellant, 78 F.3d 1386, 96 Daily Journal DAR 2489, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1477, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 3739, 1996 WL 89105 (9th Cir. 1996).

Opinions

HUG, Circuit Judge:

Cheryl Ann Putra was convicted of one count of aiding and abetting in the possession of one ounce of cocaine with intent to distribute. She appealed both her conviction and her sentence. In an unpublished memorandum disposition, we affirmed her conviction along with the convictions of her codefendants. United States v. Putra, No. 94-10040, 1996 WL 95243 (filed March 5, 1996). This opinion concerns her appeal of her sentence. Putra contends that the district court improperly considered as “relevant conduct” the cocaine involved in a separate count of which the jury acquitted her. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, and we remand for resentencing.

I.

Count 18 of Putra’s indictment charged her with aiding and abetting in the possession with intent to distribute one ounce of cocaine on May 8, 1992. Count 19 charged her with aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute five ounces of cocaine on May 9,1992. In addition, she was charged in Count 2 with conspiring knowingly and intentionally to distribute a quantity of cocaine in excess of 500 grams. Following trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict on Count 18, but it acquitted her on Count 19 and Count 2. However, at sentencing, the district court determined that the preponderance of the evidence showed that Putra was involved in both of the charged aiding and abetting transactions. The court aggregated the amount of cocaine involved in Counts 18 and 19 to determine her offense level, despite the jury acquittal on Count 19. Without the added cocaine from Count 19, Putra’s guideline range would have been 15-21 months; with the added cocaine included, her range was 27-33 months. The court sentenced her to 27 months.

II.

The issue on appeal is whether a judge can sentence a defendant for a crime of which the jury found her not guilty. We review a district court’s interpretation of the Sentencing Guidelines de novo. United States v. Buenrostro-Torres, 24 F.3d 1173, [1388]*13881174 (9th Cir.1994). We conclude that the court erred by failing to apply our prior decision in United States v. Brady, 928 F.2d 844 (9th Cir.1991).

The court instructed the jury generally on aiding and abetting that:

The guilt of a defendant in a criminal case may be established without proof that the defendant personally did every act constituting the offense alleged. The law recognizes that, ordinarily, anything a person can do for himself may also be accomplished by that person through direction of another person as his or her agent, or by acting in concert with, or under the direction of, another person or persons in a joint effort or enterprise.
So, if another person is acting under the direction of the defendant or if the defendant joins another person and performs acts with the intent to commit a crime, then the law holds the defendant responsible for the acts or conduct of such other persons just as though the defendant had committed the acts or engaged in such conduct.
Notice, however, that before any defendant may be held criminally responsible for the acts of others, it is necessary that the accused deliberately associate himself in some manner with the crime and participate in it with the intent to bring about the crime.
Of course, mere presence at the scene of a crime and knowledge that a crime is being committed are not sufficient to establish that a defendant either directed or aided and abetted the crime unless you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was a participant and not merely a knowing spectator.
In other words, you may not find a defendant guilty unless you find beyond a reasonable doubt that every element of the offense as defined in these instructions was committed by some person or persons, and that the defendant voluntarily participated in its commission with the intent to violate the law.

The court went on to instruct the jury on the individual offenses. Regarding the counts against Putra, the instructions read in part: “The defendants are charged in Counts ... 18 [and] 19 ... with possession with intent to distribute cocaine.” The court then set forth the elements of possession.

he jury acquitted Putra of aiding and abetting in the possession with intent to distribute the five ounces of cocaine involved in Count 19. By acquitting her of this charge, the jury necessarily found that she was not involved in the possession of that cocaine. Putra challenges the court’s inclusion of the additional cocaine as improper under the Sentencing Guidelines as interpreted by our decision in Brady.

United States Sentencing Guideline (“U.S.S.G.”) § lB1.3(a)(2) provides that the defendant’s base offense level shall be determined, with respect to offenses of a character for which U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(d) would require grouping, on the basis of all acts and omissions described in subdivision (1)(A) and (1)(B) that were part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan as the offense of conviction. Subdivision (1)(A) includes “all acts and omissions committed, aided, abetted, counseled, commanded, induced, procured, or willfully caused by the defendant.” U.S.S.G. § lB1.3(a)(l)(A). Application note 3 further states that under subsection (a)(2), the proper course is to include the total quantity of narcotics involved regardless of the fact that the defendant has not been convicted of the multiple counts. As an example, the application note provides that where a defendant is engaged in multiple drug sales, as part of the same course of conduct or common scheme or plan, then the total quantity of drugs involved is to be used to determine the offense level, even if the defendant is convicted of a single count charging only one of the sales. U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3, comment, (n. 3).

Although U.S.S.G. § 1B1.3, as interpreted by application note 3, indicates it is proper to include the total quantity of drugs involved in the same course of conduct scheme or plan even if the defendant is convicted of only one count, it does not deal with the situation where the defendant was charged with the other count involved and is acquitted. We considered this situation in an analogous con[1389]*1389text in United States v. Brady, 928 F.2d 844 (9th Cir.1991). In Brady, the jury acquitted the defendant of first degree murder and assault with intent to commit murder, but it convicted him of the lesser included offense of voluntary manslaughter. At sentencing, the court reconsidered the defendant’s “state of mind” and departed upward on that basis and on the degree of planning and preparation involved in the offense. Id. at 850. We reversed, concluding that the Guidelines do not allow “a court to reconsider facts during sentencing that have been rejected by a jury’s not guilty verdict.” Id. at 851.

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78 F.3d 1386, 96 Daily Journal DAR 2489, 96 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 1477, 1996 U.S. App. LEXIS 3739, 1996 WL 89105, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-plaintiff-appellee-v-cheryl-putra-ca9-1996.