United States v. Spears

Defendant, convicted of crimes related to his involvement in a cocaine trafficking conspiracy, appealed the denial of a motion to modify his sentence under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(2). The court held that the district court correctly concluded that it lacked jurisdiction to modify defendant's sentence in 2013. In this case, the district court was correct to find that defendant was responsible for more than 8.4 kilograms of crack cocaine. Defendant’s applicable Guidelines range under the drug quantity table, as modified by Amendment 750, would therefore be the same as the Guidelines range before the Amendment. Therefore, the Amendment did not have the effect of lowering defendant's applicable guideline range and modifying defendant's sentence would not be consistent with applicable policy statements issued by the Commission. The court also held that the district court did not err when it relied on factual findings from the 2001 sentencing hearing where defendant cites no authority for his contrary assertion that the 2013 court should have ignored factual findings in the 2001 sentencing proceeding because of a possible Rule 32 violation. Finally, the court held that Amendment 782 does not provide a basis for reversing the district court’s denial of defendant's motion because Amendment 782 went into effect after the district court denied defendant's motion in 2013 based on the pre-Amendment 782 drug quantity table. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Spears" on Justia Law