U.S. v. Goodman
| Decision Date | 07 December 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 06-3920.,06-3920. |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellant, v. Scott E. GOODMAN, Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Thomas J. Kangior, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, argued, Joe W. Stecher, U.S. Attorney, on the brief, Omaha, NE, for Appellant.
A. Michael Bianchi, argued, Omaha, NE, for Appellee.
Before COLLOTON, BEAM and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.
Scott Goodman pled guilty to conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine and possession of pseudoephedrine with intent to manufacture methamphetamine. The district court granted Goodman a four-level reduction for being a minimal participant under United States Sentencing Guidelines § 3B1.2(a) and a downward departure under § 5K2.0 () and sentenced him to 12 months and one day of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. The Government appeals this sentence. For the reasons below, we vacate the sentence and remand to the district court for resentencing.
On November 12, 2003, Omaha police received a disturbance and shoplifting call to a grocery store. Officers encountered Goodman, whose then-girlfriend, Leslie Fisher, had been detained for shoplifting cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient necessary to manufacture methamphetamine. Goodman confirmed Fisher's story that she was being paid $100 to obtain cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine, although he refused to identify the individual paying her, and admitted to the police that this was the second time he had either purchased or shoplifted pseudoephedrine products. Goodman consented to a search of his truck, located outside of the grocery store. Within the truck, police found a gun and approximately two grams of methamphetamine, as well as glassware, several plastic containers, approximately 650 pseudoephedrine pills, aluminum foil, 500 coffee filters, and 22 lithium batteries, all of which are used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. Police also discovered 2.4 grams of methamphetamine divided into three baggies, aluminum foil and a scale on Goodman's person. The police arrested Goodman and Fisher.
On December 18, 2003, an indictment was filed charging Goodman and Fisher with conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846 and possessing a listed chemical, pseudoephedrine, with intent to manufacture methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(c)(2). Goodman and Fisher pled guilty to the charges in the indictment. On September 23, 2004, the district court sentenced Goodman to 12 months and one day of imprisonment and three years of supervised release. The Government appealed the sentence, which was imposed after Blakely v. Washington, 542 U.S. 296, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004), and before United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005). This court remanded the case for resentencing so the district court could impose a sentence after properly determining the applicable advisory guidelines range. United States v. Goodman, 170 Fed.Appx. 1002 (8th Cir.2006) (per curiam). While the first appeal was pending, Goodman completed his term of imprisonment.
At Goodman's resentencing, the parties agreed to a base offense level of 26 and a three-level reduction for acceptance of responsibility under U.S.S.G. § 3E1.1(b). Over the Government's objection, the district court granted Goodman a four-level mitigating role reduction as a minimal participant under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2(a). Goodman thus had a total offense level of 19 with a criminal history category of I, resulting in an advisory sentencing guidelines range of 30 to 37 months' imprisonment. Noting Goodman's post-sentencing rehabilitation, including his negative drug tests, his continuous employment, his marriage to Fisher and support of her drug rehabilitation, and his payment of child support, the district court granted Goodman a downward departure for extraordinary rehabilitation under U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0. The district court then sentenced Goodman to time served under the initial sentence, stating that had it not granted a downward departure under U.S.S.G. § 5K2.0, it would have imposed the same sentence by granting a downward variance under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) for the same reasons.
The Government appeals the district court's sentence, claiming the district court erred in finding that Goodman qualified as a minimal participant under § 3B1.2(a) and in granting the downward departure or the alternative downward variance based on Goodman's extraordinary post-sentencing rehabilitation.
The Government first argues that the district court erred in granting Goodman a four-level reduction for being a minimal participant under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2(a). A district court's decision to grant a mitigating role reduction is a question of fact that we review for clear error. United States v. Carasa-Vargas, 420 F.3d 733, 737 (8th Cir.2005). We find a district court's decision to grant a role reduction to be clearly erroneous when we are "left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed." United States v. Goebel, 898 F.2d 675, 678 (8th Cir.1990) (internal quotation omitted); see also United States v. Ramos-Torres, 187 F.3d 909, 915 (8th Cir.1999).
The Sentencing Guidelines allow for a four-offense level minimal-participant reduction for those "who are plainly among the least culpable of those involved in the conduct of a group." U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2, cmt. n. 4. The Sentencing Commission noted that the minimal participant reduction should be allowed "infrequently," and only for those who lack "knowledge or understanding of the scope and structure of the enterprise and of the activities of others." Id. Minimal participants are those with "insignificant" involvement in the criminal activity. United States v. Boksan, 293 F.3d 1056, 1058 (8th Cir.2002). The Sentencing Commission provided examples of individuals who could qualify as minimal participants, such as those "who played no other role in a very large drug smuggling operation than to offload part of a single marihuana shipment, or in a case where an individual was recruited as a courier for a single smuggling transaction involving a small amount of drugs." U.S.S.G. § 3B1.2 cmt. n. 2 (2000) (omitted in subsequent editions); accord United States v. Yirkovsky, 338 F.3d 936, 941 (8th Cir.2003). The burden of establishing minimal-participant status rests with the criminal defendant. See United States v. Bueno, 443 F.3d 1017, 1022 (8th Cir.2006). In determining whether a defendant qualifies as a minimal participant, a court should look at the defendant's relevant conduct. Carasa-Vargas, 420 F.3d at 737. A court must also compare the acts of the defendant to the acts of the other participants and the acts of the defendant as they relate to the elements of the offense. United States v. Stanley, 362 F.3d 509, 511 (8th Cir.2004).
In finding that Goodman qualified as a minimal participant, the district court held that he was "plainly the least culpable of the three co-defendants" and that "his involvement was only to assist Leslie Fisher in obtaining pseudoephedrine." The district court concluded that because Fisher received a two-level reduction as a minor participant and was more culpable than Goodman, Goodman should be entitled to a four-level minimal-participant reduction. Had Goodman's conduct been limited to driving Fisher to the store so that she could obtain the pseudoephedrine, his conduct might be comparable to that of a typical drug courier, with little knowledge or understanding of the full scope and structure of the criminal enterprise — in this case, essentially a conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. However, Goodman presented no evidence suggesting that he lacked knowledge or understanding of the scope of the conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine. Moreover, the evidence of Goodman's relevant conduct shows that he was much more involved in the conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine than merely driving Fisher to the store to obtain pseudoephedrine. Cf. United States v. Snoddy, 139 F.3d 1224, 1225 (8th Cir.1998).
As part of his guilty plea, Goodman admitted that he was obtaining pseudoephedrine knowing that it would be used in the manufacture of methamphetamine and that he was conspiring...
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