U.S. v. MARTINEZ, 584 F.3d 1022 (11th Cir. October 5, 2009)

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentence and remanded the defendant’s case back to the district court for clear error based on its determination that the defendant was subject to a Section 3B1.1 role enhancement as an organizer or leader with respect to his conviction for conspiring to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana. The defendant pleaded guilty to the one count indictment of the above mentioned offense and admitted to having “orchestrated” weekly mail shipments of marijuana from Texas to Central Florida. At sentencing, the government relied entirely on the PSI report, recommended the role enhancement and characterized the entire conspiracy as the defendants’. The defendant objected to each finding that argued for the four-level enhancement and renewed those objections at the sentencing. However, the district court rejected the defendant’s objections, adopted the PSI findings, and sentenced the defendant to 78 months imprisonment.
On appeal, the defendant argued that the government failed to meet its burden by preponderance of the evidence that the defendant exercised control, influence, or decision making over another participant in the conspiracy. The court found that the government failed to establish the disputed fact or any of the essential factual statements in the PSI, nor did it establish any of the seven factors identified in Comment Four of Section 3B1.1: 1)decision making authority, 2) nature of participation, 3) recruitment, 4) larger share in profits, 5) degree of participation in planning and organizing, 6) nature and scope of the offense, and 7) the degree of control and authority exercised. The court instructed the district court to base its findings on reliable and specific evidence rather than conclusory language in the PSI and sparse evidence.