United States v. Charleton Maxwell, No. 22-1379 (8th Cir. 2023)
Annotate this Case
Defendant was convicted of one count of conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine or 5 grams or more of actual, pure methamphetamine, two counts of distribution of heroin, and one count of distribution of heroin and methamphetamine. On appeal, he challenged the district court’s denial of his motion for a new trial based on the introduction of a stipulation as to his codefendant’s prior conviction, its refusal to give his requested jury instructions, and the sufficiency of the evidence on the conspiracy count. He also challenged the district court’s calculation of his advisory sentencing guidelines range.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed. The court held that the district court did not abuse its discretion in allowing the stipulation to be introduced or in rejecting Defendant’s proposed jury instructions, and there was sufficient evidence to convict him of conspiracy to distribute. Thus, the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying Defendant’s motion for a new trial. Further, the court wrote that the district court did not clearly err in calculating the drug quantity involved in Defendant’s offense. The district court’s quantity determination was largely based on a customer’s and a confidential informant’s testimony. The district court found these witnesses to be credible, and the court found no reason to overturn that finding.
Court Description: [Gruender, Author, with Smith, Chief Judge, and Stras, Circuit Judge] Criminal case - Criminal law and Sentencing. Admission of information about a codefendant's prior drug conviction did not prejudice defendant; the district court did not err in refusing to give defendant's proposed instructions on conspiracy, including a government-agent instruction and a buyer-seller instruction; nor did the court err in refusing to instruct the jury that defendant must have knowledge of the drug type and quantity in order to be guilty of conspiracy; evidence was sufficient to show that defendant conspired to distribute methamphetamine; the district court did not err in calculating the amount of drugs involved; the amount of drugs does not need to be found by clear and convincing evidence, as the proper standard is the preponderance of the evidence; no error on this record in imposing an enhancement under Guidelines Sec. 2D1.1(b)(1) for possession of a firearm.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.