USA v. Billy Guyton, Sr.

Filing

Opinion issued by court as to Appellant Billy Guyton, Sr.. Decision: Affirmed. Opinion type: Non-Published. Opinion method: Per Curiam. (Opinion corrected on 1/8/2015)--[Edited 01/08/2015 by JRP]

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Date Filed: 01/08/2015

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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
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No. 14-12893
Non-Argument Calendar
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D.C. Docket No. 2:97-cr-00026-DHB-JEG-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
BILLY GUYTON, SR.,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Georgia
________________________
(January 8, 2015)
Before TJOFLAT, MARCUS and WILSON, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Billy Guyton, Sr. appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to reduce
his total 384-month sentence, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2), based on
Guidelines Amendment 750. We had previously remanded to the district court

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after concluding that its finding at Guyton’s original sentencing hearing that he
was responsible for “in excess of 1.5 kilograms” of cocaine base was not specific
enough to determine whether a sentence reduction under § 3582(c)(2) was
warranted. See United States v. Guyton, 550 F. App’x 796, 799-800 (11th Cir.
2013). On remand, the district court reviewed the trial testimony and determined
that Guyton was responsible for 6.0376 kilograms of cocaine base. On appeal,
Guyton argues that the district court erred in denying his § 3582(c)(2) motion
because: (1) its drug quantity finding relied on disputed facts from the presentence
investigation report (“PSI”); (2) the law-of-the-case doctrine bound the district
court to its findings during his § 3582(c)(2) proceedings in 2008 based on
Amendment 706; and (3) the district court violated his due process rights by
relying on trial testimony not included in the PSI. After careful review, we affirm.
We review de novo a district court’s conclusions about the scope of its legal
authority under § 3582(c)(2). United States v. Moore, 541 F.3d 1323, 1326 (11th
Cir. 2008).

Section 3582(c)(2) provides that a district court may reduce a

defendant’s sentence where the defendant is sentenced to a term of imprisonment
based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing
Commission.

18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2); U.S.S.G. § 1B1.10(a)(1).

A sentence

reduction is only permitted if it is based on an amendment to the Sentencing

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Guidelines that has been made retroactively applicable by the Sentencing
Commission. United States v. Hamilton, 715 F.3d 328, 337 (11th Cir. 2014).
To determine a defendant’s amended guideline range, the district court may
not reconsider other guidelines applications and must “leave all of its previous
factual decisions intact.” Id. (quotations and alteration omitted). Further, it cannot
reduce a sentence if the retroactive amendment does not lower the defendant’s
guideline range. Id. In a § 3582(c)(2) proceeding, the burden is on the defendant
to show that the retroactive amendment actually lowers his guidelines range. Id.
When Guyton was originally sentenced, 1.5 kilograms or more of cocaine
base resulted in a base offense level of 38. See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(1) (1997). In
2008, § 2D1.1(c) assigned a base offense level of 36 in cases involving at least 1.5
kilograms but less than 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base, and an offense level of 38 in
cases involving more than 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(1),
(2) (2008). Amendment 750 retroactively lowered the sentencing range applicable
to crack cocaine offenses by revising the crack cocaine quantity tables listed in §
2D1.1(c). U.S.S.G. App. C, amend. 750 (2011). At the time of the remand, §
2D1.1(c) assigned a base offense level of 36 in cases involving at least 2.8
kilograms but less than 8.4 kilograms of cocaine base. See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(2).
The maximum base offense level under § 2D1.1 was 38, which applies in cases
involving more than 8.4 kilograms of cocaine base. U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(1).
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We’ve held that a district court conducting a § 3582(c)(2) proceeding does
not make an “impermissible new finding of fact” simply by holding a defendant
responsible for a crack cocaine amount that was (1) set forth in the original PSI, (2)
not objected to by the defendant or government, and (3) adopted by the original
sentencing court. See United States v. Davis, 587 F.3d 1300, 1303-04 (11th Cir.
2009). However, in Hamilton, we vacated the denial of a defendant’s § 3582(c)(2)
motion based on Amendment 750, and remanded to the district court for an
accurate determination of the defendant’s original drug quantity. 715 F.3d at 33941. We held that a district court’s finding that the defendant was responsible for
“at least 1.5 kilograms” at the sentencing hearing was not specific enough to
support any conclusion about whether the defendant was entitled to a reduction
under Amendment 750.

Id. at 340.

We remanded for the district court to

determine “what drug quantity findings it made, either explicitly or implicitly, at
[the defendant’s] original sentencing hearing.” Id. Next, if the district court’s
original finding was limited to “at least 1.5 kilograms,” we instructed that the
district court should examine the entire record available at sentencing to see if it
could make any further findings consistent with its previous findings. Id.
“Under the law-of-the-case doctrine, an issue decided at one stage of a case
is binding at later stages of the same case.” United States v. Escobar-Urrego, 110
F.3d 1556, 1560 (11th Cir. 1997). The Due Process Clause requires a defendant to
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“be given adequate notice and an opportunity to contest the facts relied upon to
support his criminal penalty.” United States v. Jules, 595 F.3d 1239, 1243, 1245
(11th Cir. 2010) (quotation omitted) (noting that a § 3582(c)(2) proceeding is not a
de novo resentencing and a district court need not provide notice to the parties that
it intended to rely on information available at the original sentencing hearing).
In this case, the district court did not err in denying Guyton’s § 3582(c)(2)
motion because Amendment 750 did not lower Guyton’s sentencing guideline
range. On remand, the district court applied our holding in Hamilton by first
determining that, at Guyton’s original sentencing, it found that Guyton distributed
“in excess of 1.5 kilograms” of cocaine base. Based on trial testimony, the district
court determined that Guyton was responsible for 6.0376 kilograms of cocaine
base, which corresponded to a base offense level of 36 because it was more than
2.8 kilograms but less than 8.4 kilograms of cocaine base. Applying the same total
5-level increase that Guyton received at his initial sentencing for obstruction of
justice and for being a manager of criminal activity involving 5 or more
participants, the district court properly determined that Guyton’s total offense level
of 41 and criminal history category of II resulted in a guideline range of 360
months to life imprisonment. Because the district court determined that Guyton’s
guideline range was 360 months to life imprisonment during Guyton’s §
3582(c)(2) proceedings in 2008, the district court did not err in concluding that
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Guyton was not eligible for a sentence reduction because Amendment 750 did not
lower his guidelines range. See Hamilton, 715 F.3d at 337.
As for Guyton’s argument that the district court erred by relying on disputed,
un-adopted facts from the PSI, we are unpersuaded. When we remanded Guyton’s
case, we instructed the district court to ascertain more specific drug quantity
findings in accordance with our decision in Hamilton, which does not require the
district court to rely solely on the undisputed facts of the PSI. See Guyton, 550 F.
App’x at 799-800; see also Hamilton, 715 F.3d at 340. Once the district court
determined that its original findings went no further than “in excess of 1.5
kilograms” of cocaine base, the district court properly determined that it was
permitted to review all of the information before it at Guyton’s original sentencing
hearing -- including all trial testimony -- to conclude that Guyton was responsible
for 6.0376 kilograms of cocaine base. This finding was not inconsistent with the
district court’s original finding that Guyton’s offense conduct involved “in excess
of 1.5 kilograms of crack cocaine.” See Hamilton, 715 F.3d at 340.
Guyton’s argument that the law-of-the-case doctrine applies to the district
court’s drug quantity findings during his first § 3582(c)(2) proceedings is also
unavailing. During those proceedings, the district court indicated that Guyton’s
total offense level was 41, which was the result of a base offense level of 36 given
the 5-level enhancement Guyton received at his original sentencing hearing for
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obstruction of justice and for being a manager of criminal activity. Although a
base offense level of 36 at that time corresponded to a drug quantity of more than
1.5 but less than 4.5 kilograms of cocaine base, the district court did not actually
make any specific drug quantity findings, and thus was not bound by the law-ofthe-case doctrine. See U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1(c)(2) (2008); Escobar-Urrego, 110 F.3d at
1560. In fact, we remanded to the district court after Guyton’s first § 3582(c)(2)
proceedings so that the district court could articulate more specific drug quantity
findings. See Guyton, 550 F. App’x at 799-800.
Finally, we reject Guyton’s claim that his due process rights were violated
when the district court relied on the testimony of Charles Jackson, which Guyton
says was not included in the PSI or relied on at his original sentencing. According
to the PSI, Jackson testified at trial that he made three or four trips to Miami with
Guyton in which Guyton never purchased less than two kilograms of cocaine.
Moreover, when Guyton challenged Jackson’s testimony at the sentencing hearing,
the district court said it had the benefit of hearing all of the trial testimony and that
the jury’s guilty verdict showed it had apparently believed Jackson’s testimony.
Thus, the district court did not violate Guyton’s due process rights by relying on
information available at the sentencing hearing. See Jules, 595 F.3d at 1243, 1245.
In any event, the district court was not restricted to the information in the PSI in

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making the drug quantity findings, since it was permitted to consider the entire
record before it at sentencing. See Hamilton, 715 F.3d at 340.
AFFIRMED.

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