United States v. Jones

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,  Plaintiff-Appellee, v.  No. 01-4896 ANTHONY FLOYD JONES, Defendant-Appellant.  Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, at Clarksburg. Irene M. Keeley, Chief District Judge. (CR-01-20) Submitted: April 25, 2002 Decided: May 6, 2002 Before WILLIAMS and KING, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. COUNSEL Stanton D. Levenson, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for Appellant. Thomas E. Johnston, United States Attorney, Zelda E. Wesley, Assis- tant United States Attorney, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). 2 UNITED STATES v. JONES OPINION PER CURIAM: Anthony Jones appeals the sixty-month sentence he received after he pled guilty to aiding and abetting interstate travel to facilitate a conspiracy to distribute crack, in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 1952(a)(3) (West 2000). He contends that, at sentencing, the district court incorrectly applied the preponderance of the evidence standard in determining the amount of drugs attributable to the underlying offense. See U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual §§ 2E1.2, 2D1.1 (2000). Finding no reversible error, we affirm. Jones contends that, if the district court had found him to be a cred- ible witness at sentencing, his base offense level would have been twelve instead of thirty-four. Relying on United States v. Kikumura, 918 F.2d 1084 (3d Cir. 1990), Jones asserts that the court should have used the clear and convincing standard because it increased his base offense level by twenty-two levels. We disagree. This court has consistently held that "facts relevant to a sentencing determination need only be proved by a preponderance of the evi- dence." United States v. Lewis, 235 F.3d 215, 218 (4th Cir. 2000) (cit- ing United States v. Urrego-Linares, 879 F.2d 1234, 1237-38 (4th Cir. 1989)), cert. denied, 122 S. Ct. 39 (2001). In addition, the resolu- tion of the disputed amount of drugs turned on the district court’s assessment of the credibility of witnesses at the sentencing hearing, and we conclude that the court’s determination was not clearly erro- neous. See United States v. Williams, 977 F.2d 866, 870 (4th Cir. 1992). Accordingly, we affirm Jones’ sentence. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are adequately pre- sented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED