United States v. Victor Servin

145 F. App'x 565

• Court: Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
• Decided: October 13, 2005
• Docket: 04-4147
• Status: Unpublished

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Victor Manuel Moreno Servin pleaded guilty to distributing methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and the district court 1 sentenced him to 51 months in prison and 3 years of supervised release. On appeal, his counsel has filed a brief under Anders v. California, 386 U.S. 738, 87 S.Ct. 1396, 18 L.Ed.2d 493 (1967). Counsel argues that the district court erred in determining the drug quantity for which Servin was responsible and sentencing him accordingly.

We conclude that the district court did not clearly err in finding the drug quantity attributable to Servin. See United States v. Milton, 153 F.3d 891, 898 (8th Cir.1998) (standard of review), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1165, 119 S.Ct. 1082, 143 L.Ed.2d 83 (1999). The district court heard live testimony from Servin and an individual to whom he had distributed drugs, and the court’s decision to discredit Servin’s denials in favor of the other witness’s testimony was not clear error. See Anderson v. City of Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 575, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985) (credibility determinations are virtually never clear error). A conservative drug-quantity estimate drawn from that witness’s testimony falls well within the 50-to-200-gram range used to establish Servin’s base offense level.

Having reviewed the record independently pursuant to Penson v. Ohio, 488 U.S. 75, 109 S.Ct. 346, 102 L.Ed.2d 300 (1988), we conclude that there are no non-frivolous issues for appeal. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

1 . The Honorable Warren K. Urbom, United States District Judge for the District of Nebraska.