United States v. Luis Edwards

635 F. App'x 186
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJuly 1, 2015
Docket13-2629
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 635 F. App'x 186 (United States v. Luis Edwards) 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. Luis Edwards, 635 F. App'x 186 (6th Cir. 2015).

Opinions

OPINION

JULIA SMITH GIBBONS, Circuit Judge.

Luis Edwards pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and 28 grams or more of cocaine base. At sentencing, the court increased Edwards’s offense level by four points, pursuant to USSG § SBl.l(a),1 for being an “organizer or leader of a criminal activity that involved five or more participants.” The court also found that Edwards had frivolously denied being an organizer or leader and therefore decided not to grant Edwards an offense-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility. On appeal, Edwards challenges the court’s imposition of the organizer/leader enhancement and the court’s decision not to grant him credit for acceptance of responsibility. Edwards also challenges the procedural reasonableness of his sentence on several grounds: that the court did not adequately address his arguments for a variance, that the court did not adequately address the 18 U.S.G. § 3558(a) sentencing factors, and that the court did not provide a reasoned basis for its sentencing decision. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Edwards’s sentence.

I.

On October 20, 2012 at 1:38 pm, Edwards sent a text message to a person known as Ricky. Edwards and Ricky exchanged several text messages back and forth over the next couple of days. At some point between October 22 and October 24, 2012, Ricky called Edwards and asked him to pick up some cocaine in Ohio. Edwards was to be paid $1,500 if he picked up the cocaine himself. Edwards said that he could not go himself because he had plans to celebrate his birthday, but he called a friend who agreed to go pick up the cocaine. After contacting his friend, Edwards sent a text message to Ricky. Edwards gave the friend directions to two locations in Columbus, Ohio, where the cocaine would be picked up.

[188]*188The friend and another person drove to Columbus, stayed overnight, and picked up three packages of cocaine there at two locations. Phone records indicate numerous calls back and forth between Edwards and his friend, and between Edwards and two Ohio numbers, on October 24, 2012. Edwards’s Mend who was picking up the cocaine did not have contact by phone with the two Ohio numbers.

On October 24, on their way back to Lansing, Michigan, the friend and the person traveling with the friend were stopped by a sheriffs deputy while traveling on westbound 1-96. During a search of the vehicle, police discovered three packages containing cocaine. Both occupants of the vehicle agreed to cooperate with the Michigan authorities by delivering the cocaine to “Cockroach,” who was subsequently identified as Edwards.

One of the now-cooperators contacted Edwards to arrange delivery, and Edwards said that he would send someone to get the cocaine from them. The person who came to pick up the cocaine was Israel Mendez. Edwards maintains that he did not know Mendez and that someone else, not he, called Mendez to direct him to pick up the cocaine. Phone records indicate that the first contact between Edwards’s phone and Mendez’s phone was initiated by Mendez, at 6:49 pm on October 24.

At a Rite-Aid parking lot in Lansing, Michigan, the cooperator gave Mendez a black bag containing the cocaine. Mendez drove off and was stopped by Michigan State Police a short time later on southbound 1-69 in Charlotte, Michigan. Mendez consented to a search of his vehicle, in which police found three packages of cocaine, totaling 2.66 kilograms, one or more bags of cocaine base, totaling 131.77 grams, and three cellular telephones, one of which Mendez had used to contact the cooperator to arrange the pickup. On one of Mendez’s phones, investigators discovered numerous text messages between Edwards and Mendez. Among other things, Edwards sent directions to Mendez, and Mendez informed Edwards what motel room he was staying in. The most recent text message to Edwards on Mendez’s phone was an unsent draft message that read “They pull me o”.

Telephone records introduced by the government at sentencing demonstrate the extensive contacts between Edwards and the other conspirators. Edwards’s phone number ending in 0252 had 19 contacts (ie., calls plus text messages) with the cooperator. Edwards’s phone number ending in 4786 had 200 contacts with the cooperator, 25 contacts with Mendez, 31 contacts with the Ohio number beginning 740, 20 contacts with the Ohio number beginning 614, and 61 contacts with Ricky. By contrast, the cooperator had three contacts with Mendez and zero contacts with Ricky or either of the Ohio numbers. And Mendez had zero contacts with Ricky. When asked who the “hub of these communications” among the conspirators was, the FBI analyst called by the government to testify about the telephone records identified Edwards as the “common factor” in the communications.

On March 5, 2013, a grand jury indicted Edwards on two counts: (1) conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and 28 grams or more of cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846,21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(l)(B)(ii) and (iii); and (2) aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute those drugs, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), 21 U.S.C. § 841(b)(l)(B)(ii) and (iii), and 18 U.S.C. § 2. Edwards pled guilty to Count 1; the government agreed to dismiss Count 2 and, provided that Edwards complied with the necessary criteria, not to oppose Ed[189]*189wards’s request for an offense-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility.

Edwards’s Presentence Investigation Report (PSR) set out a criminal history category of I and a base offense level of 32, which both the government and Edwards accepted. The PSR stated that Edwards should receive a four-level increase under USSG § 3Bl.l(a) for being an organizer or leader of criminal activity that involved five or more participants, because Edwards had directed the activities of others and recruited participants for the offense. The PSR also recommended that Edwards receive a three-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility under USSG § 3El.l(a)-(b). Edwards objected that the § 3B1.1 enhancement should not apply because he had not had an aggravating role and because the offense did not involve five or more participants. Edwards further objected that because the § 3B1.1 enhancement did not apply, he met the “safety valve” criteria set out in § 5C1.2 and therefore was entitled to an additional two-level reduction pursuant to § 2Dl.l(b)(16).

At sentencing, the court concluded that Edwards had been a leader or organizer of a conspiracy involving five or more people and therefore adopted the four-level increase under § 3Bl.l(a) as set out in the PSR. The court further concluded that in contesting the leadership-role enhancement, Edwards had frivolously denied relevant conduct, and the court therefore refused to grant Edwards an offense-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility.

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635 F. App'x 186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-luis-edwards-ca6-2015.