United States v. Jose Figueroa

75 F. App'x 557

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: September 12, 2003
• Docket: 02-3470
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Jose Otero Figueroa challenges the sentence the district court 1 imposed after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. At sentencing, over Figueroa’s objection, the district court increased his offense level by 2 levels under U.S.S.G. § 2Dl.l(b)(l) for possessing a firearm during the conspiracy, and sentenced him to 292 months imprisonment and 5 years supervised release. On appeal, Figueroa challenges the 2-level enhancement.

After carefully reviewing the evidence presented by the government at sentencing, we conclude the district court did not clearly err in finding the government had shown by a preponderance of the evidence that Figueroa possessed a firearm during the charged conspiracy and that the it was not clearly improbable the firearm was connected to the conspiracy. See United States v. Harris, 310 F.3d 1105, 1112 (8th Cir.2002) (standard of review), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 123 S.Ct. 2121, 155 L.Ed.2d 1096 (2003). Accordingly, we affirm.

1 . The Honorable Richard G. Kopf, Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Nebraska.