United States v. Robinson, 03-4511.
| Decision Date | 09 August 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 03-4511.,No. 03-4519.,No. 03-4518.,03-4511.,03-4518.,03-4519. |
| Citation | 460 F.3d 550 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Owen ROBINSON, a/k/a Heavy, Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kendall Schuyler, a/k/a Sleepy, Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. William M. Parros, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
ARGUED: Gary Allen Ticknor, Elkridge, Maryland, for Appellants. Robert Reeves Harding, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: G. Godwin Oyewole, Washington, D.C., for Appellant Owen Robinson; Gerald Durand Glass, Towson, Maryland, for Appellant William M. Parros. Thomas M. DiBiagio, United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.
Before NIEMEYER, MOTZ, and KING, Circuit Judges.
Vacated and remanded by published opinion. Judge KING wrote the opinion, in which Judge MOTZ joined. Judge NIEMEYER wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment.
Defendants Owen Robinson, Kendall Schuyler, and William Parros (collectively, the "Defendants") have appealed the sentences imposed on them in 2003 in the District of Maryland. This is the third separate occasion for our Court to review sentences the Defendants received on their jury convictions in 1999 for various offenses relating to a large drug trafficking conspiracy, centered in the area of Baltimore, Maryland. The district court initially sentenced the Defendants in March 2000: Robinson and Schuyler each received life in prison, and Parros received thirty years. The Defendants promptly appealed their sentences to this Court (the "First Appeals") and, in November 2001, we vacated and remanded for resentencing under Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). See United States v. Johnson, 26 Fed.Appx. 111, 2001 WL 1349205, at *3 (4th Cir. Nov. 2, 2001) (hereinafter "Robinson I"). The Defendants were resentenced by the district court in May 2003, and they thereafter again appealed their sentences to this Court (the "Second Appeals"). By opinion filed in December 2004, we rejected their new contentions of sentencing error and affirmed their 2003 sentences. See United States v. Robinson, 390 F.3d 833, 838 (4th Cir.2004) (hereinafter "Robinson II"). In January 2005, the Supreme Court issued its landmark sentencing decision in United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). Subsequently, in April 2005, the Court granted the Defendants' petitions for certiorari, vacated our decision in Robinson II, and remanded the Second Appeals for further consideration in light of Booker. See Robinson v. United States, 544 U.S. 971-72, 125 S.Ct. 1875, 161 L.Ed.2d 719 (2005) (mem.).
In Booker, the Court held, inter alia, that a sentencing court commits Sixth Amendment error if it engages in judicial factfinding, under mandatory Sentencing Guidelines, that results in a sentence exceeding the maximum term authorized by the jury verdict alone. See 543 U.S. at 245-46, 125 S.Ct. 738. As explained below, we reject the contention that the Defendants' constitutional Booker claims are subject to plain error review. The Defendants properly preserved their claims of Sixth Amendment Booker error at their resentencing proceedings in 2003 by raising timely objections under Apprendi, and their contentions here are subject to review for harmless error. And because the district court committed constitutional Booker error in its 2003 resentencing proceedings, and that error was not harmless beyond a reasonable doubt, we are obliged to vacate the Defendants' 2003 sentences and remand.
On November 23, 1999, a jury in the District of Maryland convicted the Defendants and three of their co-defendants of various drug-related offenses, including conspiracy to distribute cocaine base (commonly known as "crack cocaine"), in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. See Robinson I, 26 Fed.Appx. 111, 2001 WL 1349205, at *1 (4th Cir. Nov. 2, 2001). The essential facts underlying the Defendants' convictions were summarized by us in Robinson I as follows:
[The Defendants] are former members of a drug trafficking conspiracy based predominantly in the O'Donnell Heights area of southeast Baltimore. That conspiracy . . . distributed primarily cocaine base, but also sold powder cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. At the height of the conspiracy, [the Defendants] required weekly trips to New York to obtain kilogram quantities of powder cocaine, which they would cook into cocaine base, in order to supply their operation. The volume and profit of the organization was matched by its ruthlessness, however, as at least two individuals were killed as part of the organization's attempt to secure control over its areas of distribution.
Id. In addition to finding each of the Defendants guilty of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine, in contravention of § 846, the jury convicted Robinson on a separate count of possessing crack cocaine with intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and Schuyler for carrying a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).
At the Defendants' initial sentencing proceedings, conducted in March 2000, the district court determined that each of the Defendants' criminal activity involved 1.5 kilograms or more of cocaine base, and thus assigned each of them a base offense level of 38 under the then-mandatory Sentencing Guidelines. With respect to Robinson, the court enhanced his offense level an additional two levels for possession of a firearm, see USSG § 2D1.1(b)(1) (1999), two levels for his leadership role in the offense, see id. § 3B1.1(c), and two levels for obstructing justice by committing perjury at trial, see id. § 3C1.1, for a total of six enhancement levels. The court sentenced Robinson to life in prison for his § 846 conspiracy conviction, and to a separate concurrent life sentence for his § 841 conviction. With respect to Schuyler, the court applied a two-level enhancement for his leadership role in the offense, see USSG § 3B1.1(c), plus a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice, see id. § 3C1.1, for a total of four enhancement levels. The court also applied the murder cross-reference against Schuyler, which carries a mandatory life sentence, for his having possessed a firearm that had been used in a murder carried out by a co-defendant. See id. §§ 2A1.1, 2D1.1(d). As a result, the court imposed a life sentence on Schuyler for his § 846 conspiracy conviction, plus a consecutive sentence of five years for his § 924(c) conviction. With respect to Parros, the court imposed a sentence of thirty years for his § 846 conspiracy conviction.
After the Defendants noted their First Appeals to this Court, but before they filed appellate briefs, the Supreme Court rendered its decision in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000). In Apprendi, the Court held that the Sixth Amendment requires that any fact, other than a prior conviction, that "increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt." Id. at 490, 120 S.Ct. 2348.
In their First Appeals, the Defendants asserted, as relevant here, that their sentences had been imposed in contravention of Apprendi, in that they each exceeded the applicable statutory maximum. These assertions were premised on the fact that the indictment did not allege, and the jury had not found, any of the threshold drug quantities necessary to authorize the sentences imposed.1 As the Defendants had not asserted Apprendi-type error during their initial sentencing proceedings, and they had been sentenced prior to Apprendi being decided, we reviewed their sentencing contentions in Robinson I for plain error only. See 2001 WL 1349205, at *2. As we explained there, "[u]nder § 841(b)(1)(C), a defendant whose indictment for a violation of § 841(a) does not describe the quantities of drugs involved may receive a [maximum] sentence of twenty years," or "a maximum of thirty years where the defendant has one or more prior felony convictions." Id. The Defendants had each received sentences in March 2000 in excess of the relevant statutory maximums. Id. at *3. In addressing their contentions in the First Appeals, we concluded in Robinson I that
[t]he life sentences imposed on Schuyler and Robinson are in excess of the thirty-year statutory maximum2 . . . demonstrating error that is plain. . . . Likewise, because the Government did not include Parros in its pre-trial § 851 information, only the twenty-year maximum of § 841(b)(1)(C) was authorized as to him. See § 851. With respect to the third prong of the plain error inquiry, we have found that a sentence in excess of the authorized statutory maximum to which a defendant would not otherwise be subject affects his substantial rights. Id. Finally, we recently determined that where the sentence imposed is defective due to a fatal error in the indictment, as is the case here, this court should notice that error. United States v. Cotton, 261 F.3d 397 (4th Cir.2001).
Id. at *3. Under the rationale of our Cotton decision, on which we relied in Robinson I, the Defendants' sentences in excess of the statutory maximums constituted plain error requiring correction on appeal, because such error "seriously affect[ed] the fairness, integrity or public reputation of judicial proceedings." Cotton, 261 F.3d at 406. Accordingly, in disposing of their First Appeals, we vacated the sentences imposed on the Defendants in 2000 and remanded for resentencing at or below the relevant statutory maximums, as established by § 841(b)(1)(C). See Robinson I, 2001 WL 1349205, at *3.
While the Defendants were awaiting resentencing in the...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
U.S. v. Brooks
...be served. Under harmless error review, the Government "bears the burden of establishing that error was harmless." United States v. Robinson, 460 F.3d 550, 557 (4th Cir.2006). In imposing Mathis's consecutive sentence, the district court opined that "[i]t is my understanding they normally p......
-
United States v. Dyess
...this pre-sentencing posture, we are obliged to apply the harmless error standard of review. Fed.R.Crim.P. 52(a); United States v. Robinson, 460 F.3d 550, 557 (4th Cir.2006). Under the harmless error standard, a defendant is “entitled to relief if the error has affected his substantial right......
-
U.S. v. Matos
...at bar, the parties labor under a very different standard, with the sentencing judge sitting as fact-finder. See United States v. Robinson, 460 F.3d 550, 559 (4th Cir.2006) (noting that whether a defendant possessed a firearm is a factual issue at sentencing); United States v. Dorsey, Fed.A......
-
United States v. Pena
...on harmlessness, the government must show that an error did not affect a defendant’s "substantial rights." United States v. Robinson , 460 F.3d 550, 557 (4th Cir. 2006). A sentencing error is harmless "if the resulting sentence was not longer than that to which [the defendant] would otherwi......
-
§14.3 - CERCLA Actions
...and fees, such as those incurred in identifying other PRPs, are recoverable as response costs. Id. at 820; see also Franklin Cnty., 460 F.3d at 550 (holding that fees associated with non-litigation-related expenses, such as identifying PRPs, are recoverable because those fees are closely ti......