United States v. Jerrell Moore

706 F.3d 926, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 3711, 2013 WL 646001
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 22, 2013
Docket12-2290
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 706 F.3d 926 (United States v. Jerrell Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Jerrell Moore, 706 F.3d 926, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 3711, 2013 WL 646001 (8th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

ARNOLD, Circuit Judge.

The district court 1 denied Jerrell Moore’s motion for a sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2). Mr. Moore appeals and we affirm.

In 2008, Mr. Moore pleaded guilty to having conspired from early 2006 until his arrest in June, 2007, to manufacture, distribute, and possess with the intent to distribute 50 grams or more of crack cocaine, see 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(l)(A)(iii) (2009), 846. He entered into a plea agreement that did not resolve the issue of drug quantity, and he objected to many paragraphs of the presentence investigation report. The probation officer held an objection meeting with the attorneys, where they stipulated that Mr. Moore was responsible for at least 500 grams but less than 1.5 kilograms of crack, an amount that directly corresponded to a base offense level of 34. See U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(c)(3) (2008).

Two days before sentencing, Mr. Moore’s counsel filed a sentencing memorandum stating that his client did not agree with the stipulation or the PSR and maintained that his base offense level was 32. The memorandum disputed the drug quantity finding by challenging, among other things, the reliability of Matthew Davenport, a cooperating co-conspirator whose statements were used to make the drug-quantity finding: Mr. Moore pointed to Mr. Davenport’s failure to assert that the conspiracy involved 1000 grams of crack until he met with the government for the fourth time.

*928 At the beginning of the sentencing hearing, the sentencing court (the same judge who later ruled on Mr. Moore’s § 3582(c)(2) motion) said that the question of drug quantity was unresolved, and the government offered evidence on the issue. The court attributed more than 500 grams of crack to Mr. Moore and, using a base offense level of 34, calculated his sentencing range as 292-365 months and sentenced him to 292 months’ imprisonment. Mr. Moore appealed his sentence, but we dismissed based on an appeal waiver in his plea agreement.

In November, 2011, the Sentencing Commission authorized retroactive application of guideline amendments that reduced the offense levels for certain crack cocaine sentences under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1. See U.S.S.G. app. C, amends. 750, 759. Mr. Moore relied on the amendments to file a § 3582(c)(2) motion for a sentence reduction. To be eligible for such a reduction, a defendant’s original sentence must have been based on a sentencing range that the Sentencing Commission has lowered. 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2); see U.S.S.G. § lB1.10(a), (b). The court thus had to determine Mr. Moore’s sentencing range under the amended guidelines, which now provide two different base offense levels for the drug quantity of 500 grams to 1.5 kilograms of crack. The relevant drug quantity must now be at least 840 grams to yield Mr. Moore’s original offense level. U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(e)(3). If the quantity is less than 840 grams of crack, the base offense level falls to 32, see U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(4), which, in turn, would lower Mr. Moore’s sentencing range, thus making him eligible for a § 3582(c)(2) reduction.

In response to the § 3582(c)(2) motion, the court appointed counsel for Mr. Moore and allowed the parties to file memoranda as to whether it should reduce Mr. Moore’s sentence. The court agreed with the government that Mr. Moore’s sentencing range remained the same because he was responsible for more than 840 grams of crack. In its written decision, the court noted that although the PSR had attributed more than 500 grams of crack to Mr. Moore, drug-quantity was in dispute at sentencing. The district judge quoted his own statements from the sentencing transcript: “The amount of crack cocaine involved in this conspiracy that was reasonably foreseeable to Mr. Moore so greatly exceeds 500 grams necessary to be a level 34 that it is hardly worth mentioning. This conspiracy and the acts reasonably foreseeable to Mr. Moore greatly, greatly exceeded that amount.” The judge then explained that “[b]y this, [he had] indicated that the defendant was responsible for a multiple of the 500 grams necessary to reach a base offense level of 34.” He concluded that the “quantity also exceeds 840 grams currently necessary to reach a base offense level of 34 under the ... amendments” and thus Mr. Moore “is not entitled to a reduction in sentence.”

Mr. Moore maintains that the district court erred in making additional findings. According to Mr. Moore, the court could not expand on its original finding that he was responsible for more than 500 grams of crack: He argues that because it did not have authority to make a supplemental finding that Mr. Moore was responsible for at least 840 grams of crack, the court should have concluded that Mr. Moore’s sentencing range had decreased under the amendments and that he was eligible for a reduction. We disagree.

In an unpublished decision, we have agreed with other circuits that district courts may make supplemental findings in a § 3582(c)(2) proceeding if the findings are necessary to deciding the motion and do not contradict any findings made at sentencing. United States v. *929 Christian, No. 12-2210, 2013 WL 323212 (January 29, 2013) (unpublished per curiam); see also United States v. Almonte, No. 12-1911, 2012 WL 5974115, at *1 (8th Cir. Nov. 29, 2012) (unpublished per curiam); United States v. Hernandez, 645 F.3d 709, 712-13 (5th Cir.2011); United States v. Moore, 582 F.3d 641, 646 (6th Cir.2009); United States v. Davis, 682 F.3d 596, 612 (7th Cir.2012). For the reasons that follow, we hold that the district court was authorized to make the necessary supplemental finding in this case. And we note, moreover, that the district judge was particularly qualified to make a finding here because he had heard the evidence at sentencing.

Section 3582(c)(2) requires district courts to comply with U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10, the Sentencing Commission’s “applicable policy statement! ],” 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2), “to determine the prisoner’s eligibility for a sentence modification,” Dillon v. United States, — U.S. -, 130 S.Ct. 2683, 2691, 177 L.Ed.2d 271 (2010). In arguing that supplemental findings are prohibited, Mr. Moore relies heavily on the Supreme Court’s statement in Dillon, that the “relevant policy statement ... instructs courts proceeding under § 3582(c)(2) to substitute the amended Guidelines range while ‘leaving] all other guideline application decisions unaffected.’” Dillon, 130 S.Ct. at 2688 (quoting U.S.S.G. § lB1.10(b)(l)). Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
706 F.3d 926, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 3711, 2013 WL 646001, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-jerrell-moore-ca8-2013.