United States v. Jarvis

883 F.3d 18
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedFebruary 22, 2018
DocketDocket No. 17-896-cr; August Term 2017
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 883 F.3d 18 (United States v. Jarvis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Jarvis, 883 F.3d 18 (2d Cir. 2018).

Opinion

Per Curiam:

In this case, defendant-appellant Anthony Carosella pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and heroin, conspiracy to commit armed robbery, and conspiracy to burglarize pharmacies and was sentenced in 2011 to concurrent 120-month terms of imprisonment. In 2016, Carosella moved to reduce his sentence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) and Amendment 782 to the Guidelines ("U.S.S.G."), which lowered the base offense level for his drug conviction by two levels. The district court determined that Carosella was ineligible for a sentence reduction because, even with the two-level decrease in the offense level for the drug conviction, his amended Guidelines range remained the same as it was when he was initially sentenced. Carosella now appeals, arguing that the district court erred in recalculating his Guidelines range. For the *20reasons set forth below, we disagree and affirm the district court's ruling.

BACKGROUND

On May 5, 2011, pursuant to his guilty pleas to three counts of a superseding information, the district court sentenced Carosella to concurrent 120-month terms of imprisonment for: conspiracy to distribute cocaine base and heroin in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B) and 846 ; conspiracy to commit armed robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951(a) ; and conspiracy to burglarize pharmacies in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2118(b) and (d), which encompassed three separate pharmacy burglaries. At sentencing, the court divided Carosella's offenses into five groups: Group 1 (drugs); Group 2 (armed robbery); Group 3 (the first pharmacy burglary); Group 4 (the second pharmacy burglary); and Group 5 (the third pharmacy burglary). The court applied the grouping rules under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4, calculated a total offense level of 30, and then granted credit for acceptance of responsibility, resulting in an adjusted total offense level of 27. Based on Carosella's Category IV criminal history, the court determined that the Guidelines range was 100 to 125 months. The court denied Carosella's request for a non-Guidelines sentence.

In 2014, Amendment 782 to the Guidelines, made retroactively applicable by Amendment 788, lowered the base offense level for Carosella's drug conviction by two levels. On December 2, 2016, Carosella filed a motion to reduce his sentence pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2).

On March 16, 2017, the district court issued an order denying Carosella's motion. United States v. Carosella , No. 1:10-CR-110 (JGM), 2017 WL 1025806, at *1 (D. Vt. Mar. 16, 2017). After lowering the offense level for Carosella's drug conviction (Group 1) from 28 to 26, the court determined the amended Guidelines range by following the same grouping analysis it used in 2011. As it had done before, the district court applied the grouping rules under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4, and the resulting calculation was again a total offense level of 30. The court again granted credit for acceptance of responsibility, resulting once more in an adjusted total offense level of 27.

Because of the operation of the grouping rules, Carosella's total offense level did not change. Pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4, the district court added two levels-which it had not added in 2011-because the lowered base offense level also lowered the differential between the highest offense level (Group 1) and the offense level for the three pharmacy burglaries (Groups 3, 4 and 5).1 That two-level increase offset the *21two-level decrease from Amendment 782. Accordingly, the district court concluded that Carosella's amended Guidelines range remained the same and he was therefore ineligible for a sentence reduction.

On appeal, Carosella argues that the district court erred by adding the two levels after lowering the base offense level for his drug conviction, because U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10(b)(1) mandates that a district court "shall leave all other guideline application decisions unaffected" when applying a retroactive amendment. Instead, Carosella argues that the only change the district court should have made was to apply the two-level decrease from Amendment 782, which would have yielded a total offense level of 28, an adjusted total offense level of 25, and an amended Guidelines range of 84 to 105 months' imprisonment. Carosella also contends that, to the extent the language in U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10(b)(1) is ambiguous, the rule of lenity applies.

DISCUSSION

We review de novo the statutory question of whether a defendant is eligible for a sentence reduction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) because his sentence was "based on a sentencing range that was subsequently lowered by the Sentencing Commission." United States v. Christie , 736 F.3d 191, 195 (2d Cir. 2013).

A. Applicable Law

A defendant is eligible for a sentence reduction if he was "sentenced to a term of imprisonment based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing Commission" and "such a reduction is consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Sentencing Commission." 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) ; see Dillon v. United States , 560 U.S. 817, 821, 826, 130 S.Ct. 2683, 177 L.Ed.2d 271

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
883 F.3d 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jarvis-ca2-2018.