United States v. Conrado Garcia-Guizar

234 F.3d 483, 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9676, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 31163, 2000 WL 1781656
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit·Decided December 6, 2000·No. 99-10435·Published·Cited by 103 cases

Opinion

ORDER

CANBY, Circuit Judge:

The opinion filed in this matter on September 20, 2000, and reported at 227 F.3d 1125, is amended as follows:

At 227 F.3d at 1127, delete the last sentence of the second paragraph of the opinion (beginning “We do not notice ...”). For the deleted sentence, substitute the following:
We conclude that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, however, because the Ap-prendi error did not affect Garcia’s sentence.
The citation to United States v. Nordby then follows.
At 227 F.3d at 1129, delete the second full paragraph on the page (beginning “Because Garcia did not object ...”) and the first sentence of the paragraph immediately following (beginning “Garcia founders ...”). For the deleted passage, substitute the following:
Although Apprendi had not been decided at the time of Garcia’s sentencing, Garcia argued in his sentencing memorandum that the amount of drugs for which he was to be sentenced had to be pleaded and found by the jury beyond a reasonable doubt. He relied on Apprendi’s predecessor, Jones v. United States, 526 U.S. 227, 119 S.Ct. 1215, 143 L.Ed.2d 311 (1999). Garcia therefore raised the Apprendi issue, and his sentence cannot stand unless the district court’s constitutional Apprendi error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. See Chapman v. California, 386 U.S. 18, 24, 87 S.Ct. 824, 17 L.Ed.2d 705 (1967).
It appears beyond a reasonable doubt that the Apprendi error did not affect Garcia’s sentence.
The next sentence (beginning “At resen-tencing ... ”) then follows without a paragraph break.
At 227 F.3d at 1130, in the third and fourth lines of the left column, delete “Garcia was not prejudiced by the error.” Substitute therefor “any error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”
At 227 F.3d at 1130, in lines 12-13, insert a period after “Garcia’s sentence” and delete the remaining words of the sentence and the citation: “or his substantial rights. Olano, 507 U.S. at 732, 113 S.Ct. 1770.”

The full amended opinion follows.

The panel has unanimously voted to deny the petition for panel rehearing. Judges Reinhardt and Fernandez have voted to deny the petition for rehearing en banc, and Judge Canby has so recommended.

The petition for en banc rehearing has been circulated to the full court, and no judge of the court has requested a vote on the petition for rehearing en banc. Fed. R.App.P. 35(b).

The petition for panel rehearing and the petition for rehearing en banc are denied.

OPINION

Conrado Garcia-Guizar appeals from his resentencing by the district court pursuant to his conviction on four drug counts under 21 U.S.C. § 841 and one count of criminal forfeiture under 21 U.S.C. § 853(a)(1). We affirm.

Two major questions are presented. First, the district court’s finding of drug quantity under 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(1), which was made at sentencing under a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, was error under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000), because it increased the statu *487 tory maximum sentence beyond that which the jury’s findings could support. We conclude that the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, however, because the Apprendi error did not affect Garcia’s sentence. See United States v. Nordby, 225 F.3d 1053, 1059-61 (9th Cir.2000).

Second, the district court on resentenc-ing corrected an error in the method of calculating the amount of drugs establishing Garcia’s base offense level at his original sentencing, with the result that Garcia’s new sentence was 33 months longer than his original sentence. We conclude that the correction of this error did not evidence vindictiveness or violate due process; we therefore affirm the new sentence.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The facts of Garcia’s arrest and conviction are set out extensively in our opinion deciding Garcia’s appeal from his initial sentencing. See United States v. Garcia-Guizar, 160 F.3d 511 (9th Cir.1998). Garcia was convicted on six counts: (1) conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine (count one) in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841; (2) distribution of methamphetamine (counts two to four) in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841; (3) possession of marijuana with intent to distribute (count five) in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841; and (4) criminal forfeiture (count six) under 21 U.S.C. § 853(a)(1).

At sentencing, the district court adopted the findings in the first presentenee report. The report based Garcia’s recommended offense level on the amount of methamphetamine mixture involved. The probation officer stated in the report that the amount of pure methamphetamine also could be used, but that he had not selected this alternative “to avoid unnecessary controversy.” The Guidelines, however, permitted no such choice; the court was required to select the method that would lead to a higher offense level. See U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(c) (1995). 1 In Garcia’s case, calculation on the basis of pure methamphetamine would have led to a higher offense level.

The court, however, followed the recommendation of the presentence report and based the offense level on the amount of mixture. It included in the calculation the methamphetamine sold to undercover police in all four sales. After combining the total quantities of methamphetamine mixture and marijuana, the court arrived at a base offense level of 28. The court then adjusted Garcia’s offense level upward two levels for being an “organizer, leader, or supervisor” under U.S.S.G. § 3Bl.l(e), and two additional levels for obstruction of justice under § 3C1.1. This calculation produced a sentencing range on the methamphetamine counts from 135 to 168 months.

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United States v. Conrado Garcia-Guizar, 234 F.3d 483, 2000 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 9676, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 31163, 2000 WL 1781656 (9th Cir. 2000).

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