United States v. Ismail Shalash

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedDecember 20, 2018
Docket17-6413
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Ismail Shalash (United States v. Ismail Shalash) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Ismail Shalash, (6th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION File Name: 18a0632n.06

Case No. 17-6413

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

FILED UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) Dec 20, 2018 ) DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED v. ) STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR ) THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF ISMAIL SHALASH, ) KENTUCKY ) Defendant-Appellant. ) ) )

Before: SILER, MOORE, and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

SILER, Circuit Judge. Ismail Shalash dealt heroin as part of a conspiracy in northern

Kentucky. He pleaded guilty, without a plea agreement, to conspiring to distribute heroin in

violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. The district court sentenced him to 84 months’

imprisonment, slightly below the advisory Guidelines range. Shalash appeals his sentence,

claiming the district court erred by: (1) accepting the probation officer’s incorrect calculation of

his criminal history score; (2) holding Shalash accountable for 1.5 kilograms of heroin he

voluntarily surrendered to Drug Enforcement Agency agents; and (3) relying on information in

Shalash’s competency evaluation. Because the government concedes that the district court plainly

erred in calculating Shalash’s criminal history score, we remand for resentencing on that issue. Case No. 17-6413, United States v. Shalash

But because the district court properly considered the heroin Shalash turned over and Shalash’s

competency evaluation, we affirm the district court on those issues.

Facts and Procedural History

Shalash obtained heroin from his dealer and then supplied it to Ryan Jacobs, another drug

dealer, as part of a drug conspiracy. The conspiracy ended when police arrested Jacobs in 2015.

Drug Enforcement Agency (“DEA”) agents interviewed Shalash the next day, and he admitted his

role in distributing the drugs. A week after his interview, Shalash voluntarily surrendered

1.5 kilograms of heroin to the DEA.

The district court granted Shalash’s motion for a competency evaluation. Upon

considering the report from a forensic psychologist, the district court concluded that Shalash was

competent for trial. Shalash pleaded guilty to Count II of the Superseding Indictment. His plea

did not address how much heroin he distributed.

The United States Probation Office prepared a Presentence Investigation Report (PSIR).

Such reports consider “relevant conduct” under United States Sentencing Guideline § 1B1.3 in

calculating a defendant’s base offense level. Shalash conceded that 148.1 grams of heroin he

obtained before October 2015 fell under the relevant conduct provision, but he maintained that the

1.5 kilograms he voluntarily turned over to the DEA on October 5, 2015 did not apply. He argued

that because he had signed a confidential-informant application, he was working for the DEA when

he turned in the drugs. Plus, Shalash argued, the additional heroin fell outside the temporal

boundaries of the conspiracy because he acquired the drugs from a different source after the

conspiracy ended. In short, according to Shalash, the district court could not view the additional

heroin as relevant conduct because after police arrested Jacobs (thus ending the conspiracy) and

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after his interview with the DEA, Shalash bought 1.5 additional kilos of heroin and then turned it

in.

The PSIR rejected Shalash’s position. It determined that Shalash possessed the

1.5 kilograms during the conspiracy, making it relevant conduct. The difference mattered: Had

the district court considered only the 148.1 grams of heroin that Shalash admitted were relevant,

his base offense level would have been 24. But offenses involving the distribution of one to three

kilograms of heroin increase the base offense level to 30. USSG § 2D1.1(c)(5). With an

acceptance of responsibility reduction under USSG § 3E1.1(a), Shalash’s total base offense level

was 27.

The PSIR assigned a total criminal history score of four. Under USSG ch. 5 pt. A, a

criminal history score of four establishes a criminal history category of III. The Probation Office

reached that score by assigning one point for each prior case for which Shalash had been sentenced

in state court. But in three of those cases, Shalash was sentenced on the same day: February 4,

2011. And under USSG § 4A1.2, sentences imposed on the same day are treated as a single

sentence when there is no intervening arrest. USSG §4A1.2(a)(2). No arrest separated at least

two of Shalash’s crimes. Shalash never objected to his criminal history score. He raises his

miscalculation argument for the first time on appeal.

With a criminal history category III and a base offense level of 27, Shalash faced a

Guidelines range of 87 to 108 months. The district court sentenced Shalash to 84 months’

imprisonment and three years of supervised release. Shalash did not object to the sentence beyond

the 1.5 kilograms as relevant conduct. In determining Shalash’s sentence, the district court

(1) accepted the PSIR’s criminal history score, (2) accepted the PSIR’s finding that the

-3- Case No. 17-6413, United States v. Shalash

1.5 kilograms of heroin constituted relevant conduct, and (3) relied, in part, on Shalash’s

competency report.

On whether the additional drug amount fell under the relevant conduct provision, the

district court found that Shalash’s explanation—that he obtained the heroin after the conspiracy

ended—was false. Instead, the district court determined that Shalash acquired and possessed the

heroin before Jacobs’s arrest and only later gave it to the DEA. Testimony from two DEA agents

supported that conclusion. Agent Anderson Muse testified that despite Shalash’s interest in

becoming a confidential informant, he never fully completed the process. The agents told Shalash

that if he wanted to set up a controlled buy with his supplier, he would have to contact the DEA

first. But for a full week, they heard nothing from Shalash. And then, balled up with tape and

sitting in a crock pot, 1.5 kilograms of heroin arrived in the DEA’s office.

Shalash had not mentioned the additional heroin during his interview the week earlier. So

the agents questioned Shalash about the origin of the drugs. He said that he had obtained the drugs

from two Hispanic males at an IHOP restaurant in Ohio after his first interview. But nothing

corroborated Shalash’s story. And, as Agent Muse testified, Shalash could not recall what type of

car the suppliers were in or what time of day he went to the IHOP. In short, Shalash provided “no

clue who the people were or where [the heroin] came from.” R. 179, PageID #545.

At some point, agents contacted a Hispanic male who appeared at the location where

Shalash allegedly obtained the heroin. However, that man “had no clue what was going on with

anything,” and he “ha[d] nothing to do with [the] dope.” Id. Agents also determined that the drugs

Shalash turned in happened to be the same tan heroin that had been distributed in the Jacobs-

Shalash conspiracy.

-4- Case No. 17-6413, United States v. Shalash

DEA agents then interviewed Jacobs ten days after Shalash turned over the heroin. Jacobs

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