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United States v. Waymer Williams, 922 F.2d 837, 4th Cir. (1991)
United States v. Waymer Williams, 922 F.2d 837, 4th Cir. (1991)
2d 837
Unpublished Disposition
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of South
Carolina, at Orangeburg. Charles E. Simons, Jr., Senior District Judge.
(CR-89-186-02)
Cameron B. Littlejohn, Jr., Lewis, Babcock, Pleicones & Hawkins,
Columbia, S.C., for appellant.
E. Bart Daniel, United States Attorney, Robert C. Jendron, Jr., Assistant
United States Attorney, Columbia, S.C., for appellee.
D.S.C.
AFFIRMED.
Before ERVIN, Chief Judge, and K.K. HALL and PHILLIPS, Circuit
Judges.
PER CURIAM:
cocaine with intent to distribute and to two counts of distributing small amounts
of cocaine, was sentenced to sixty months as to each count to be served
concurrently. The district court, relying on Sentencing Guidelines Sec. 2D1.4
and Sec. 1B1.3 (note 1), based the sentence on a quantity of over one kilogram
of cocaine. This quantity was found in a search of a house controlled by a coconspirator--a house that Williams was observed going to in order to obtain
small packets of cocaine for distribution. On appeal Williams raises the
question whether the district court erred in including, for purposes of
sentencing, the quantity of cocaine that was found in the stash house, when the
defendant had not been in the stash house for five months and only occasionally
obtained small quantities of cocaine from the house. Because the requisite
amount of cocaine was reasonably foreseeable to defendant, we affirm.
In February 1989, the story repeated itself. The informer again went to
Haigler's house to purchase cocaine. The deal was negotiated with Haigler, and
then Williams was directed to go get cocaine. Williams was observed going to
the same structure as before, and again he left this house with a small bag of
cocaine. He then gave the cocaine to the informer in exchange for money.
Williams, who was not observed, as far as this record indicates, since February
1989 in the vicinity of the stash house, was arrested in July 1989, along with a
number of others, and charged with conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to
distribute and two counts of substantive distribution. After the arrest of
Williams and his co-defendants, the house to which Williams went to retrieve
the small bags of cocaine was searched. That search uncovered approximately
one kilogram of cocaine and four additional ounces. The conspiracy charge
against Haigler was superseded with an indictment charging him with
possession with intent to distribute the kilo of cocaine. Williams was not
charged with the kilogram.
Williams pled guilty to all three counts (conspiracy plus two distribution
charges). However, he objected to inclusion of the kilogram of cocaine in his
sentencing. The district court ruled that since Williams had pled guilty to
participation in the conspiracy to distribute cocaine and had not terminated his
participation in the conspiracy, which ran up to the time of arrest, then those
drugs were reasonably foreseeable by Williams and should be included in his
sentencing. See Sentencing Guidelines Sec. 2D1.4; see also id. Sec. 1B1.3 (note
1). On this appeal, Williams challenges the district court's decision as clearly
erroneous.
II
6
being used to store drugs for distribution, it is reasonably foreseeable that six
months later, while the conspiracy is still in operation, the house will contain a
kilogram of cocaine.
III
9
10
AFFIRMED.