United States v. Shamsud-Din

580 F. App'x 468
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 15, 2014
DocketNo. 13-2971
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 580 F. App'x 468 (United States v. Shamsud-Din) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Shamsud-Din, 580 F. App'x 468 (7th Cir. 2014).

Opinion

ORDER

Erik Shamsud-Din challenges the 180-month sentence he received after he transported girls, including at least one minor, in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. We find no clear error in the imposition of a vulnerable victim enhancement because Shamsud-Din knowingly preyed on a victim’s fear of a man who had been harming her. We also find any error in imposing a “use of a computer” enhancement based on Shamsud-Din’s use of a cell phone to be harmless, as the district court made very clear that it would have imposed the same sentence regardless of whether the enhancement was proper. We affirm Shamsud-Din’s sentence.

I. BACKGROUND

At the age of fifteen, Victim A ran away from a foster home in Minnesota and met a man whom the government calls “Individual A.” He told Victim A he would be her boyfriend and would take care of her, and he bought her a bus ticket to California. But upon her arrival 'in California, Individual A required Victim A to work as a prostitute for him. With no money and no other options, Victim A did so and gave him all the money she made. Individual A beat her multiple times while she worked for him.

In December 2006, while at an appointment at a male customer’s house, Victim A explained her circumstances to her customer, and he drove her to a hotel a few cities away. There, Victim A met Erik Shamsud-Din, the defendant. She told him that she had just escaped from a pimp who had been beating her up. She also told Shamsud-Din she was sixteen years old. After she explained her circumstances, Shamsud-Din offered that Victim A could begin working as a prostitute for him instead of for Individual A. Relieved because she thought Shamsud-Din could protect her from Individual A, Victim A gave Shamsud-Din the rest of the money she had with her and began working for him that evening.

[470]*470Within a few days, Shamsud-Din began taking Victim A, along with Victims B and C, to various cities across the United States to engage in sex acts for money. When the group arrived in a new town, Shamsud-Din posted advertisements for the girls’ sexual services on Craigslist and other websites. He communicated with Victim A by cell phone about travel to locations for purposes of prostitution. He drove her to appointments and communicated with her by cell phone to arrange where she should be dropped off and picked up. Victim A gave Shamsud-Din all the money she earned from prostitution and relied on him to buy her food and other necessities. Shamsud-Din, forty years old at the time, also had sex with Victim A two or three times a week during this time.

Shamsud-Din pled guilty to two counts of transporting Victim B in interstate commerce with the intent that she engage in prostitution, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2421. He stipulated in the plea agreement to the additional offense of knowingly transporting Victim A, a minor, across state lines to engage in prostitution, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a). Victim A, twenty-three years old at the time of the sentencing hearing, testified at the sentencing hearing about her experiences with Shamsud-Din and the traumatic effects they had on her.

After hearing Victim A’s testimony and considering the parties’ arguments, the district court denied the government’s request for an undue influence enhancement but applied vulnerable victim and use of a computer enhancements. The resulting advisory range under the United States Sentencing Guidelines was 135 to 168 months’ imprisonment. The district court imposed a sentence of 180 months’ imprisonment and explained that it would impose the same sentence even if the advisory guidelines were incorrectly calculated. Shamsud-Din appeals his sentence.

II. ANALYSIS

A. Vulnerable Victim Enhancement

Shamsud-Din first contends that he should not have received a vulnerable victim enhancement. The United States Sentencing Guidelines provide for a two-level enhancement if the defendant knew or should have known that a victim of the offense was a vulnerable victim. U.S.S.G. § 3Al.l(b)(l). A “vulnerable victim” under the Guidelines is one who is a victim of the offense of conviction or any relevant conduct and “who is unusually vulnerable due to age, physical or mental condition, or who is otherwise particularly susceptible to the criminal conduct.” U.S.S.G. § 3Al.l(b)(l) cmt. n. 2. We review the district court’s application of the vulnerable victim enhancement for clear error. United States v. Christiansen, 594 F.3d 571, 574 (7th Cir.2010).

In concluding that the vulnerable victim enhancement was warranted, the district court stated:

The victim here clearly conveyed to the defendant the fact that she did not have a stable place to live; that she did not have a lot of money left; that she was a runaway; and, in addition, in making it significant here, is the fact that she conveyed to the defendant — and this had nothing to do with her age, nor did the other factors, that she conveyed to the defendant — that she was afraid of the prior relationship she had; and, that Individual A was preying on her and had beaten her up and she feared him. And the defendant offered his “protection” to her and he took advantage of that.

Shamsud-Din makes several arguments as to why, in his view, the vulnerable victim enhancement was wrongly applied. [471]*471For one, he contends that Victim A’s runaway status was too closely related to her age to support the enhancement. The vulnerable victim enhancement is not appropriate if the factor that makes the person vulnerable is already incorporated in the offense guideline. U.S.S.G. § 3Al.l(b)(l) cmt. n. 2. Shamsud-Din’s offense level had been calculated based upon a guideline that was limited to crimes against minors. See U.S.S.G. § 2G1.3(a)(3). Here, however, the district court specifically stated that it found Victim A vulnerable for reasons that had nothing to do with her age. Those reasons included that she was fearful of Individual A and that Shamsud-Din preyed upon that fear, as well as that she was homeless and had little money. Because these reasons were unrelated to Victim A’s age, the fact that she was a runaway does not preclude the enhancement in this case.

Shamsud-Din also argues that Victim A’s homelessness, runaway status, and economic uncertainty cannot form the basis of a vulnerable victim finding because these factors are “typical” of sex-trafficking victims and are therefore insufficient to show that Victim A was “unusually” vulnerable. See U.S.S.G. § 3Al.l(b)(l) cmt. n. 2 (defining “vulnerable victim” as one who is “unusually vulnerable due to age, physical or mental condition, or who is otherwise particularly susceptible to the criminal conduct”) (emphases added). Even if that were true, a “significant” reason the district court found Victim A vulnerable was that she feared Individual A, a man who had physically and mentally abused her, and that Shamsud-Din knowingly took advantage of that fear. That fear, and Shamsud-Din’s decision to prey on it, means it was not error for the district court to conclude that Victim A was unusually vulnerable or particularly susceptible.

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