United States v. Bethea

FILED UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT _|UL 2 0 2016 FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA ' C|erk, U.S. Dlstrlct & Bankruptcy Defendant. counts for the D|strlct of Co|umbla ) UNlTED STATES OF AMERICA ) ) v. ) ) Criminal No. 10-265-3 (RCL) SAQUON BETHEA, ) ) ) ) MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER Before the Court is defendant Saquon Bethea’s motion [227], seeking a sentence reduction under 18 I.J.S.C. § 3582(0)(2) and based upon the retroactive application of Amendment 782 to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. After considering the motion, the govemment’s response [24l], the federal public defender’s filing [243], the entire record herein, and the applicable law, the Court finds Bethea’s original sentence was not based on a subsequently-lowered Sentencing Guidelines range and that he is therefore ineligible for a sentence reduction under § 3582(¢)(2). Accordingly, the Court will DENY his motion. BACKGROUND On September 13, 201 l, a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned a superseding indictment charging Bethea and three co-defendants with drug-related crimes. PSR_ 11 9. Specifically, Bethea was charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine and 280 grams or more of cocaine base. Ia’. On September 23, 20l l, Bethea pled guilty to this charge. Id. at 11 15. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 1l(c)(l)(C), the parties entered into a written plea agreement, which established 84 months imprisonment as Bethea’s appropriate sentence. PSR 11 18; Plea Agreement 11 3, ECF'No. l42. This plea agreement was "wired" to Bethea’s three co-defendants, meaning that if any one of his three co-defendants failed to enter into his plea agreement, then the government could withdraw or void Bethea’s agreement entirely. Plea Agreement 1 6. That, however, did not happen: all four co-defendants pled guilty, and on February 28, 2012, and Court sentenced Bethea to 84 months imprisonment in accordance with the prison term negotiated in his plea agreement. See ECF No. l87, at 2. Before doing so, the Court calculated his Sentencing Guidelines range to be 84 to 105 months. ECF No. 227-3. In his present motion, Bethea asks the Court to reduce his 84-month sentence to 70 months pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3582(0)(2). Although generally speaking a court may not modify a term of imprisonment once it has been imposed, § 3582(0)(2) provides an exception. See Dillon v. United States, 560 U.S. 8l7, 824 (2010;) ("Section 3582(c)(2) establishes an exception to the general rule of finality."). Under this statutory provision, a court may authorized to modify a prison tenn where the original sentence was "based on a sentencing range that has subsequently been lowered by the Sentencing Commission." 18 U.S.C. § 3582(0)(2). On April 30, 2014, the U.S. Sentencing Commission submitted to Congress Amendment 782 of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, proposing a downward revision to sentencing ranges for drug trafficking offenses. The Commission then passed Amendment 788 to allow Amendment 782’s revisions to be applied retroactively. On November l, 20l4, Amendment 782 and its retroactive application became effective, and Bethea now argues that these amendments authorize the Court to reduce his sentence to as low 70 _rnonths. For the reasons stated below, the Court will deny Bethea’s motion, finding that it lacks the authority to reduce his sentence because the original sentence was not "based on" a sentencing range that has been subsequently lowered by the Sentencing Commission. `DISCUS_SION Because Bethea’s original sentence was not "based on" a subsequently lowered sentencing range, he is ineligible for a sentence reduction under § 3582(0)(2). In order for the Court to have the authority to reduce a defendant’s sentence under § 3582(0)(2), the defendant must satisfy two basic eligibility requirements: his sentence must have been "‘based on’ a subsequently-lowered guideline range, [and] . . . the sentence reduction [must be] consistent with U.S.S.G. § lBl.l0, the policy statement governing § 3582(0)(2) proceedings." In re Sealed Case, 722 F.3d 36l, 366 (D.C. Cir. 20l3) (quoting Dillon v. Unitea' .S`-tates, 56(l U.S. 8l7, 827 (2010)). In considering these requirements,. it is often difficult to assess whether or not a sentence was "based on" a specific sentencing range when a defendant and the government entered into a plea agreement and the Court imposed the sentence contained in that agreement. When conducting this analysis, the D.C. Circuit has ruled that "the focus . . . ought to be on the reasons given by the district court for accepting the sentence that it ultimately imposed, not on the parties’ agreement." United States v. Epps, 707 F.3d 337, 353 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (citation omitted)). Further',' "a defendant’s sentence is ‘based on’ a subsequently-lowered guideline range ‘to whatever exter_it’ that range was a relevant part of the analytic framework the judge used to determine the sentence." In re Sealed Cas'e, 722 F.3d 36l, 366 (D.C. Cir. 2013) (citing Freen-'ian v. Unitea' States, 131 S. Ct. 2685, 2692 (2011)). To more fully uhderstand the contours of Epps’s "based on" standard, this Court looks in part to United States v. Gross, Crim. No. l0-0(l36, ECF No. 52 (D.D.C. Feb. 2, 2016) (Friedman, .J.). ln that case, the defendant similarly brought a motion for a sentence reduction under `§ 3582(0)(2) years after receiving the sentence originally agreed to in his plea agreement. In Gross, the Court found that the defendant’s sentence was not "based on" on any specific sentencing range, even though the sentence was within the Guidelines range the judge calculated before imposing his sentence. Judge Friedman reasoned that "the Court’s [previous sentencing] decision to accept the plea agreement was not based on the Sentencing Guidelines . . . because the plea agreement was a global resolution of all the pending charges against [the defendant] in both federal and local courts." Ia'. at 9 (emphasis in original). Importantly, the Court came to that decision even after it calculated the defendant’s relevant "sentencing range under the Guidelines as required by law." Id. at 4 (citing United States v. Duv_all, 701 F.3d 479, 483 (D.C. Cir. 2013)). As a result, the Court ruled that it did not have the authority to reduce the defendant’s sentence under § 3582(0)(2). Id. Bethea’s case is in many ways similar. Like the defendant in Gross, Bethea’s sentence was not based on the Guidelines range the Court calculated before imposing its sentence. Instead, the Court accepted a proposed sentence that arose out of private and particular negotiations designed to globally resolve all the charges brought against Bethea and his three co-defendants. Indeed, as Bethea’s plea agreement was "wired" to other his co-defendant’s proposed agreements, the govemment presumably negotiated and ultimately settled on the terms of Bethea’s plea agreement, including his 84-month sentence, not with an eye towards the Sentencing Guidelines but in an effort to simultaneously obtain guilty pleas from Bethea and all three of his co-defendants. This interpretation is supported both by the text of the plea agreement itself and by Bethea’s presentencing report. Paragraphs three and fourteen of Bethea’s plea agreement work together to clearly demonstrate that the 84-month prison tenn was not based on a Sentencing Guidelines range. First, paragraph three reads, "[t]he Government and your client agree that a sentence of 7 years (84 months) of imprisonment is the appropriate sentence for this offense." Plea Agreement 11 3, .l;¢.¢.i- ECF No. l42. Next, paragraph fourteen states: "lf your client is sentenced upon consideration of the Sentencing Guidelines, rather than pursuant to paragraph three of this agreement, the following terms apply . . . . " Id. at 11 14 (emphasis added). In other words, paragraph fourteen indicates that Bethea’s 84-month sentence was based on an agreement with the government and not upon consideration of the Guidelines_