United States v. Wilkerson
Decision Date | 01 May 2020 |
Docket Number | No. CR 00-0557 JB,CR 00-0557 JB |
Citation | 495 F.Supp.3d 1232 |
Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Daryl WILKERSON, Defendant. |
Court | U.S. District Court — District of New Mexico |
John C. Anderson, United States Attorney, Terri Abernathy, James Braun, Assistant United States Attorneys, United States Attorney's Office, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorneys for the Plaintiff.
Meghan D. McLoughlin, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Attorney for the Defendant.
THIS MATTER comes before the Court on the Motion to Reduce Sentence Pursuant to Section 404 of the First Step Act, filed January 30, 2019 (Doc. 595)("Motion"). The Court held a hearing on March 31, 2020. See Clerk's Minutes at 1, filed March 31, 2020 (Doc. 613). The primary issues are: (i) whether, pursuant to section 404 of the Formerly Incarcerated Reenter Society Transformed Safely Transitioning Every Person Act, Pub. L. No. 115-391, 132 Stat. 5194 (2018) ("First Step Act"), Defendant Daryl Wilkerson is eligible for a sentence reduction; and (ii) whether, considering the 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) factors, the Court should reduce D. Wilkerson's term of imprisonment from 360 months to time served -- roughly 240 months -- resulting in his immediate release. Specifically, the issue is whether D. Wilkerson's eligibility for First Step Act relief depends on the statutory offense that a jury convicted D. Wilkerson of violating, or whether such relief depends on the actual amount of cocaine base for which the sentencing judge concluded D. Wilkerson was responsible. D. Wilkerson notes that a jury convicted him of an offense involving five grams or more of cocaine base, and Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466, 120 S.Ct. 2348, 147 L.Ed.2d 435 (2000) ("Apprendi"), and Alleyne v. United States, 570 U.S. 99, 133 S.Ct. 2151, 186 L.Ed.2d 314 (2013) ("Alleyne"), prohibit the Court's reliance, in determining D. Wilkerson's eligibility for First Step Act relief, on the actual amount of drugs for which D. Wilkerson was responsible. Accordingly, D. Wilkerson asserts that he is eligible for First Step Act Relief, because the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, Pub. L. No. 111-220, 124 Stat. 2372 ("Fair Sentencing Act"), reduced the statutory mandatory minimum sentence for the offense of which he was convicted. The United States, however, asserts that Apprendi and Alleyne are not retroactively applicable, and so D. Wilkerson is ineligible for relief, because his actual offense conduct involved 44.57 grams of cocaine base, and, were the United States to charge D. Wilkerson under the Fair Sentencing Act, it would charge -- and convict him -- of violating an offense for which the Fair Sentencing Act does not reduce the statutory penalty. The Court concludes that, under the First Step Act's plain language, D. Wilkerson's eligibility depends on the amount of crack that the statutory offense provides rather than on the amount that the sentencing judge concluded he possessed. Accordingly, the Court concludes that: (i) D. Wilkerson is eligible for a sentence reduction pursuant to the First Step Act; (ii) D. Wilkerson's resulting United States Guidelines Manual ("U.S.S.G." or "Guidelines") range is 262-327 months; and (iii) considering the § 3553(a) factors, the Court will vary downwards D. Wilkerson's sentence by one level, resulting in a sentence of time served.
The Court takes the facts from the presentence report and the parties’ briefing. D. Wilkerson was born on October 7, 1961, to Carolyn Wilkerson in Hobbs, New Mexico. See Presentence Report ¶ 70, at 23, prepared January 31, 2001, filed April 28, 2020 (Doc. 616)("PSR").1 D. Wilkerson is the eldest of eight children. See PSR ¶ 70, at 23. D. Wilkerson lived most of his life in Hobbs, save for brief stints in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and Odessa, Texas. See PSR ¶ 70, at 23. D. Wilkerson married Mona Mathews in 1982; together they had three children. See PSR ¶ 71, at 23. D. Wilkerson killed Mathews on May 17, 1990, "by inflicting blows with a blunt object." PSR ¶ 60, at 20. For the two years preceding D. Wilkerson's arrest in this matter, he lived with Yolanda Williams, with whom D. Wilkerson had a child. See PSR ¶ 73, at 23.
Regarding his education and employment history, the PSR reports that D. Wilkerson graduated from Hobbs High School in Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1980. See PSR ¶ 78, at 24. D. Wilkerson attended business classes at New Mexico Junior College in Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1986 and 1987. See PSR ¶ 78, at 24. D. Wilkerson has worked several odd jobs, including as a stonemason and doing "off and on" work at his mother's clothing store in Hobbs, New Mexico. PSR ¶ 79, at 24. D. Wilkerson also worked at various times as a handyman, roofer, and construction worker. See PSR ¶ 80, at 24-25.
D. Wilkerson had some arrests that did not factor into his criminal history category calculation. See PSR ¶¶ 65-68, at 22. These include arrests for harboring or aiding a felon, possession of stolen property, trafficking a controlled substance, and driving while under the influence. See PSR ¶¶ 65-68, at 22. D. Wilkerson had no pending charges at the time of his arrest in this matter. See PSR ¶ 69, at 22. Three offenses factored into Wilkerson's criminal history category calculation. See PSR ¶ 64, at 21. First, a jury found Wilkerson guilty of trafficking in a controlled substance in 1988, when D. Wilkerson was twenty-seven years old. See PSR ¶ 59, at 20. Second, D. Wilkerson pled guilty in 1990, when he was twenty-eight years old, to voluntary manslaughter and tampering with evidence for his killing of Mathews. See PSR ¶ 60, at 20. Third, D. Wilkerson pled guilty to conspiring to transport stolen motor vehicles in 1994, when Wilkerson was thirty-two years old. See PSR ¶ 61, at 21.
The PSR provides the following description of D. Wilkerson's offense and the enterprise of which he was a member:
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