United States v. Angel A. Ramirez

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: March 26, 1999
• Docket: 98-2762
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

United States Court of Appeals FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT ___________

No. 98-2762 ___________

United States of America, * * Appellee, * * Appeal from the United States v. * District Court for the * District of Nebraska Angel A. Ramirez, * * [UNPUBLISHED] Appellant. * ___________

Submitted: February 5, 1999

Filed: March 26, 1999 ___________

Before McMILLIAN, LOKEN, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges. ___________

PER CURIAM.

Angel A. Ramirez appeals from the final judgment entered in the United States District Court1 for the District of Nebraska after he pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine between June 1, 1993, and May 21, 1997, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. The district court sentenced appellant to 121 months imprisonment and five years supervised release. For reversal appellant

1 The Honorable Thomas M. Shanahan, United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska. argues the district court erred in calculating the amount of cocaine attributable to him for sentencing purposes.

We have carefully reviewed the hearing transcript--including the testimony of the government&s witnesses, two of whom the district court specifically credited--and we conclude that the transcript supports the district court&s drug-quantity finding. See United States v. Maggard, 156 F.3d 843, 847-48 (8th Cir. 1998) (government must prove by preponderance of evidence drug quantity attributable to defendant), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 1094 (1999); United States v. Adipietro, 983 F.2d 1468, 1472 (8th Cir. 1993) (this court will not overturn district court&s drug-quantity determination unless it is clearly erroneous; court&s findings as to credibility of witness in making drug-quantity determination are virtually unreviewable on appeal). We also conclude that the drug quantities to which the witnesses testified were properly attributed to Ramirez under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 1B1.3(a)(1) and (2) (1998).

Accordingly, the judgment of the district court is affirmed.

A true copy.

Attest:

CLERK, U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT.

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