United States v. Cassandra Harris Parker

Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit·Decided March 5, 2026·No. 25-10846·Unpublished

Opinion

NOT FOR PUBLICATION

In the

United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

No. 25-10846

Non-Argument Calendar

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

versus

CASSANDRA HARRIS PARKER, Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 3:24-cr-00123-TES-SMD-7

Before NEWSOM, BRANCH, and BRASHER, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:

Cassandra Parker appeals her sentence of 37 months’

imprisonment imposed after she entered an open plea of guilty to conspiracy to commit federal program theft and theft concerning

2 Opinion of the Court 25-10846

programs receiving federal funds. She argues that the district court erred in applying several sentencing guidelines offense-level increases, including (1) a ten-level loss amount enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1), (2) a four-level leader or organizer enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a), and (3) a two-level abuse of trust enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3. Additionally, for the first time on appeal, she argues that the district court plainly erred in applying a two-level increase under both U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(9)(A) and § 3B1.3 based on the same conduct. After review, we affirm the enhancements related to the loss amount and Parker’s leadership role. However, we agree that Parker was ineligible for the U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 enhancement because the U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(9)(A) enhancement was based on the same conduct. Because this error affected the guidelines range, we vacate the sentence and remand for resentencing.

I. Background

A grand jury indicted Parker and several co-conspirators with conspiracy to commit federal program theft, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 (Count One), and theft concerning programs receiving federal funds, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 666(a)(1) (Count Five). She entered an open guilty plea to both counts before a magistrate judge. As part of her plea colloquy, Parker admitted that, between 2016 and 2020, she conspired with others to embezzle, steal, or otherwise fraudulently obtain more than $5,000 from her employer Tuskegee University, and that Tuskegee University received more than $10,000 in federal funding per year. Specifically, Parker knowingly created fraudulent purchase orders

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showing money owed to her co-conspirators and then used those purchase orders to generate legitimate checks for her co-conspirators. The co-conspirators would then cash the checks, and they would split the money with Parker and other co-conspirators. As part of this conspiracy, she also recruited at least four people to participate. Additionally, she admitted that the individuals who recruited her had their own separate checkcashing scheme, but that she was unaware of these schemes when she was recruited in 2016, and she did not share in the proceeds from those separate schemes. She admitted that she knew the purpose of the scheme and that it was illegal. The magistrate judge recommended that the district court accept Parker’s plea, and the district court adopted the recommendation.

Prior to sentencing, the United States Probation Office prepared a presentence investigation report (“PSI”). According to the PSI, the fraud scheme began in 2007 or 2008 when co-conspirators and fellow Tuskegee employees Wanda Hairston and Cynthia Kitt started submitting fraudulent travel reimbursements for Morris Welch (Hairston’s boyfriend), who was neither a student nor an employee of Tuskegee. At a later, unspecified date, Parker, who was the purchasing manager at Tuskegee, “came forward wishing to participate in the scheme.” Parker recruited Lanequia Cooper, Ledaryl Johnson, Abraham Wright, and Keyonn Cannon, who were friends of her son, into the

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conspiracy.1 Additionally, Hairston’s sister, Phyllis Tyner, was involved in the conspiracy. None of them had any ties to Tuskegee, nor were they entitled to any payments. Cooper received a total of $27,150, Wright received $40,700, Johnson received $39,000, Cannon received $34,700, and Tyner received $58,165.58. To execute the scheme, Kitt and Parker created the purchase orders and sent them to the accounts payable department. When the checks were ready, Hairston or Kitt notified Parker, and Parker retrieved the checks and delivered them to her co-conspirators to be cashed. Parker explained that the person who cashed the check received $300 and Parker received the rest of the money, which she typically then split with Kitt and Hairston.2 As part of the scheme, they also occasionally forged signatures on documents. In total, Tuskegee lost $394,115.38.

The probation office determined that the loss amount attributable to Parker was $239,281.40, “based on the loss amounts for the individuals recruited by Parker, and the checks cashed by Welch and Tyner that Parker assisted with obtaining by joining the conspiracy in 2016.” Based on this loss amount, Parker received a

1 Two other Tuskegee employees stated that Parker propositioned them to

join the conspiracy, but they did not do so. 2 Other check cashers in the conspiracy reported receiving either $300, $400,

$500, or $800 for each check cashed. Meanwhile, Janet Moss-Smith, the Title III Grants Director at Tuskegee, “stated that she was paid $2,000 to $3,000 for signing the paperwork that allowed the fraudulent checks to be issued.”

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ten-level guidelines enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(F).3 Parker also received a four-level increase for being an organizer or leader of a conspiracy that involved five or more people under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a). Finally, she received a two-level increase under U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(9)(A) “[b]ecause the offense involved a misrepresentation that [she] was acting on behalf of an educational organization,” and another two-level increase under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 for abusing a position of public or private trust. Her total adjusted offense level of 21 and her criminal history category of I resulted in an advisory guidelines range of 37 to 46 months’ imprisonment.

Parker raised several objections to the PSI. First, she objected to the loss amount attributed to her and the related ten- level enhancement, arguing that she should not be held responsible for the amounts received by Welch and Tyner because she did not know they were involved in the conspiracy, and she did not share in the proceeds with them. Parker maintained that she should be responsible only for the monies received by the individuals she recruited, which would have resulted in a lower eight-level enhancement. Second, she objected to the four-level organizer or leader enhancement, arguing that she was not the organizer or leader and that she knew nothing about the check cashing scheme that Hairston ran with Welch and Tyner. Third, she objected to

3 Section 2B1.1(b)(1)(F) provides that the offense level is increased by ten levels

if the loss exceeded $150,000 but was less than $250,000. U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(b)(1)(F).

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the two-level increase based on the offense involving a misrepresentation that she was acting on behalf of Tuskegee. She maintained that “none of the factual statements in the [c]ommentary for [that] section applie[d] to [her].”

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