United States v. Blackburn

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. No. 98-4341 JOSEPH BLACKBURN, Defendant-Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at Elkins. Robert Earl Maxwell, Senior District Judge. (CR-97-8) Argued: January 28, 2000 Decided: February 28, 2000 Before NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge, HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge, and Frederic N. SMALKIN, United States District Judge for the District of Maryland, sitting by designation. _________________________________________________________________ Vacated and remanded by unpublished per curiam opinion. _________________________________________________________________ COUNSEL ARGUED: James R. Fox, JORY & SMITH, Elkins, West Virginia, for Appellant. Sherry L. Muncy, Assistant United States Attorney, Elkins, West Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: David E. Godwin, United States Attorney, Elkins, West Virginia, for Appellee. _________________________________________________________________ Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). _________________________________________________________________ OPINION PER CURIAM: Joseph Blackburn appeals his sentence after pleading guilty to dis- tribution of cocaine base (crack) in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). On appeal, Blackburn contends, and the government readily agrees, that information, i.e., his assisting other persons in distributing four ounces of crack every two weeks for one year, provided by him to the authorities after his arrest but before sentencing, was intended under his plea agreement to be treated as information provided under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual (USSG) § 1B1.8, and, thus, not included as relevant conduct under USSG § 1B1.3 in the calculation of his guideline range. We agree. Accordingly, we vacate Blackburn's sentence and remand for resentencing without using as relevant conduct the information pro- vided by Blackburn to the authorities after his arrest but before sen- tencing. VACATED AND REMANDED 2