United States v. McDonald, No. 14-1957 (1st Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute heroin and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. At sentencing, the district court increased Defendant’s base offense level from 18 to 20 based on relevant conduct concerning drugs he purportedly sold, rather than the drugs he actually possessed. The relevant conduct was based on a confidential informant’s (CI) grant jury testimony and a statement the CI made to the government. Defendant received a sentence of seventy-five-months imprisonment for each count, to be served concurrently. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court (1) did not err in denying Defendant’s motion to suppress; (2) did not clearly err in finding that the information obtained from the CI met the requirements for relevant conduct and was sufficiently reliable to attribute to Defendant an additional quantity of drugs; (3) did not clearly err in the drug quantity it attributed to Defendant; and (4) did not err in imposition an obstruction of justice enhancement.
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