In August 2000 Enriquе Rivera was convicted of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine and conspiring to commit money lаundering. He was originally sentenced to 293 months in prison, but on appeal we reversed the drug conspiracy conviction for lack of sufficient evidence and remanded the case for resen-tencing.
See United States v. Rivera,
I. BACKGROUND
We assume familiarity with the facts set forth in our prior opinion and will repeat оnly what is necessary for this appeal. At Rivera’s original sentencing hearing, the district court determined that the adjusted offense levels for the money laundering count and the drug conspiracy count were 27 and 35, respectively. The counts were grouрed, so the court used the higher offense level of 35, which, coupled with a criminal history category of IV, yielded a guidelines range of 235 to 293 months. Finding a sentence at the high end of the range to be appropriate, the court imposed 293 months for thе drug conspiracy conviction and 240 months for the money laundering conviction, to run concurrently with each other and with a prior undischarged 262-month sentence that was imposed in California in 1999.
On remand, after we reversed the drug conspiracy conviсtion, the district court left undisturbed its original findings that the money laundering count carried an adjusted offense level of 27 and that Rivera’s сriminal history category was IV. This resulted in a guidelines range of 100 to 125 months. At the resentencing hearing, Rivera urged the court to impose a 100-month sentence and to run it concurrently with the prior undischarged sentence in California:
[Considering all the factors last time in determining [that the sentences] should be concurrent, the only thing that’s changed is that the Seventh Circuit has reversed the drug conspirаcy case. And I think now to change and give him consecutive time, it seems to be punishing him for pursuing his right to appeal and for being successful on appeal. If it was reasonable back in November of 2000 to give him concurrent time, it’s reasonable now.
Rivеra also informed the court that, though the presentence report indicated that the prior undischarged term was 262-months long, “he actually received 151 months. I think somewhere along the line that was corrected in the prior presen-tences.” Thе government disputed whether the undischarged term had been reduced, but the court ultimately found the dispute unimportant to the sentencing determination. The court explained that, regardless how long the undischarged sentence might be, consecutive terms wеre necessary to adequately punish Rivera for his “continuing pattern of drug activities and [to] protect the community from any further activity in the sale of drugs and money laundering for quite a significant period of time.” The court then imposed a prison term оf 120 months, to run consecutively to the undischarged sentence. This ruling, assuming that the prior sentence remains at 262 months, resulted in an ovеrall time of imprisonment of 382 months — 89 months longer than the time Rivera originally received.
II. DISCUSSION
Rivera challenges his sentence on thrеe grounds. First, he contends that the Double Jeopardy Clause “prohibits the district court’s wholesale revamping of Rivera’s money laundering sentence ... because neither Rivera nor the Government challenged it on appeal.” But as we have еxplained before, where a defendant is sentenced on multiple counts, he has “no legitimate expectation оf finality in any discrete portion of the sentencing package after a partially successful appeal.”
United States v. Shue,
Also without support is Rivera’s contention that the district court “exceeded the jurisdiction granted by the remand for resentencing on the money laundering conspiracy.” Contrary to Rivera’s assertions, there is nothing in our eаrlier opinion that imposed any limitations on the district court’s ability to reconsider the sentencing package as a whоle.
See generally Rivera I,
Rivera’s last claim, based on the Due Process Clause, is that his new sentence raises a presumption of vindictiveness undеr
North Carolina v. Pearce,
But in order to calculate Rivera’s total punishment after resentencing, we must first know whether his prior undischarged sentence has been reduced to 151 months or whether it remains at 262 months. We are uncertain why the district court thought this factual question to be unimportant, given that the court’s purpose in choosing between a concurrent or consecutive (or partially concurrent) sentence presumably should have been to effectuate its original sentencing intent. Under U.S.S.G. § 5G1.3(c) district courts have the ability to run sentences “concurrently, partially concurrently, or consecutively to [a] prior undischarged term of imprisonmеnt to achieve a reasonable punishment for the instant offense.” The court here determined that 293 months was “a reasonable punishment” the first time around. We see no reason why that should be any different on remand unless there were changed circumstances, and both parties agree that there were none.
None of this is of any import, however. At oral argument the parties clarified that the prior undischarged sentence has in fact been reduced to 151 months. This means that Rivera’s total term of imprisonment is now 271 months — 22 months
shorter
than his original sentence — so the
Pearce
presumption does not apply.
See Mancari,
III. CONCLÜSION
The judgment of the district court is Affirmed.
