United States v. Quentin Gray

Filing

OPINION FILED - THE COURT: JAMES B. LOKEN, BOBBY R. BALDOCK and DIANA E. MURPHY. Diana E. Murphy, Authoring Judge (PUBLISHED) [3782820] [10-3090]

United States Court of Appeals
FOR THE EIGHTH CIRCUIT

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No. 10-3090
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United States of America,

*
*
Plaintiff - Appellee,
*
* Appeal from the United States
v.
* District Court for the Western
* District of Missouri.
Quentin R. Grays,
*
*
Defendant - Appellant.
*
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Submitted: April 11, 2011
Filed: May 2, 2011
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Before LOKEN, BALDOCK1, and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.
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MURPHY, Circuit Judge.
Quentin Grays pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, in
violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The district court2 sentenced him to 108 months
in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Grays appeals his sentence,
arguing the district court erred in applying a cross reference under the sentencing

1

The Honorable Bobby R. Baldock, United States Circuit Judge for the Tenth
Circuit, sitting by designation.
2

The Honorable Greg Kays, United States District Judge for the Western
District of Missouri.

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guidelines and in converting cash to its drug equivalent for purposes of calculating
the drug quantity involved in the offense. We affirm.
Kansas City police arrested Grays, already a felon at the time, in May 2008 for
evading officers and committing traffic violations during a car chase. A search
incident to the arrest revealed he had in his possession a Ruger handgun and small
quantities of crack, cocaine, and marijuana. A year later, in May 2009, Grays sold
crack to a confidential informant (CI). The next month the same CI informed police
that Grays was armed and driving a 2002 Chevrolet Tahoe. A tactical squad acting
on the tip found the Tahoe unattended in a shopping center parking lot. When Grays
emerged from the shopping center, he saw the waiting police and fled on foot. He
pulled a Glock handgun from his waistband and flung it under a parked car before
officers overtook and arrested him. They searched Grays and discovered he had
$5350 in cash on him, including 200 twenty dollar bills. Officers inventoried Grays’
Tahoe after his arrest and found 13.91 grams of crack inside. They also recovered the
handgun Grays had tossed away.
Grays was indicted on two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm,
one count for the Ruger he had in 2008 and the other for the Glock he was carrying
in 2009. Without a written plea agreement Grays pled guilty to the count charging
possession of the Ruger, and the government dismissed the remaining charge. At
sentencing Detective Don Stanze testified about the 2009 arrest. He said that the
amount of crack found in the Tahoe made it likely that it was intended for distribution
rather than personal use. He also said that twenty dollar bills are commonly used in
the drug trade. Grays’ sister, Keaira Grays, testified on his behalf. She said that she
had given Grays $5000 in cash on June 6, 2009, as a down payment toward her
purchase of his Tahoe. She did not claim to have any personal knowledge of whether
Grays had that cash with him on the day of his arrest.

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The district court did not credit Keaira Grays’ testimony because of internal
inconsistencies in her story. The court instead credited officer Stanze’s testimony and
found that the $5350 in cash was connected to Grays' drug business. In calculating
Grays’ sentence, the district court applied the cross reference at United States
Sentencing Guidelines § 2K2.1(c)(1), which is triggered when a defendant possesses
a firearm in connection with an underlying offense. The presentence report (PSR)
had identified the underlying offense as drug trafficking.
The court adopted the PSR and applied § 2D1.1 of the sentencing guidelines,
which requires a calculation of the quantity of drugs involved in order to determine
the offense level. The court took into account the amount of crack, cocaine, and
marijuana involved in the 2008 arrest, the sale to the CI, and the 2009 arrest. It also
accounted for the cash found on Grays by calculating how much crack $5350 would
represent, using a rate of $65 per 1.58 grams (the amount the CI paid Grays for the
1.58 grams of crack he purchased in 2009). Pursuant to application note 10 of §
2D1.1, the court converted the crack and cocaine into their marijuana equivalents and
totaled the marijuana involved. Grays’ guideline sentencing range was calculated to
be 87 to 108 months. The court sentenced him to 108 months.
Grays appeals his sentence, arguing that the § 2K2.1(c)(1) cross reference was
incorrectly applied because he possessed a firearm in connection with drug
possession, not drug trafficking. He also argues that the cash should not have been
converted into its drug equivalent. We review the district court’s application of the
sentencing guidelines de novo and its factual findings for clear error. United States
v. Swanson, 610 F.3d 1005, 1007 (8th Cir. 2010).
After review of the record, we conclude that the district court did not clearly
err in finding that Grays possessed a firearm in connection with drug trafficking. He
had a distribution quantity of drugs with him when police found him in possession
of the Glock. Though he pled guilty only to the Ruger count, there is no requirement
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that the firearm for which an enhancement is imposed be the same as the one involved
in the count to which the defendant pled guilty. See United States v. Mann, 315 F.3d
1054, 1056 (8th Cir. 2003). The enhancement applies even when the offense of
conviction and the possession of the firearm are not contemporaneous. United States
v. Davis, 360 F.3d 901, 903 (8th Cir. 2004). There is sufficient evidence to support
the court’s finding that Grays possessed the Glock in connection with a drug
trafficking offense, which properly triggered the cross reference to § 2D1.1.
We also conclude that the district court did not clearly err in converting the
cash into its crack equivalent. “[I]n order to accurately reflect the scale of drug
trafficking activity, the Guidelines authorize the district court to convert seized
money into a quantity of drugs.” United States v. King, 518 F.3d 571, 575 (8th Cir.
2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). Here, the court considered it likely that the
money was connected to drug trafficking based on Grays’ sparse employment history,
his recent crack sale to the CI, and the incredibility of Keaira Grays’ testimony. That
evidence amply supports the conclusion that the conversion helped to reflect the scale
of Grays' underlying drug trafficking offense more accurately, which is all the
guidelines require.
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
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