Criminal Law: Possession with Intent to Distribute-Career Offender Designation-Reasonableness of Sentence

Defendant appealed the district court’s application of a career offender enhancement and the reasonableness of his sentence. Defendant pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute near a protected location. Based on defendant’s 1998 convictions for possession and distribution of cocaine, the district court imposed a career offender designation and increased defendant’s total offense level by nine levels. On appeal, defendant argued that his 1998 convictions should be considered a single conviction because the earlier state conviction was relevant conduct for his federal conviction and was outside the lookback period.

Even if the district court erroneously calculated defendant’s offense level by imposing a career offender designation, any error was harmless where the district court stated that it would have imposed the same sentence, based on defendant’s criminal history, even if a lower Guidelines range applied.

Judgment is affirmed.

U.S. v. Doolin (MLW No. 80180/Case No. 22-2148 – 4 pages) (U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit, per curiam) Appealed from U.S. District Court, Northern District of Iowa, Williams, J.