United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Roger G. Galbraith, Defendant-Appellant.
No. 99-1676
United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit
Argued October 1, 1999—Decided January 11, 2000
Before Cudahy, Easterbrook and Kanne, Circuit Judges.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. No. 97 CR 40069--J. Phil Gilbert, Chief Judge.
I. Facts
About three hours later, the Galbraiths drove onto their land. What happened next is disputed. Galbraith contends that he was immediately handcuffed. He also notes that two agents present at the scene have different recollections about whether the officers drew their guns, and when the officers read Galbraith and his wife their Miranda rights. The government contends that both were read their rights, waived them and were interviewed by the agents and released.
The government arrested Galbraith in November 1997, and he was released on bond. The government later moved to revoke the bond because Galbraith had allegedly continued to manufacture methamphetamine after his arrest. Galbraith was taken into custody on April 16, 1998. He moved to suppress evidence seized from his residence during the search described above. Galbraith also moved to suppress the statement he gave on that day. The trial court denied both motions. On April 23, a grand jury returned a two-count indictment naming Galbraith, his wife and five others as defendants. Count one alleged a conspiracy with six codefendants and two others indicted in related proceedings to possess and distribute methamphetamine in violation of
At sentencing, the judge accepted Songer’s statement and used it to raise Galbraith’s relevant conduct calculation. He also enhanced Galbraith’s offense level by two levels for obstruction of justice, denied a two-level downward adjustment for acceptance of responsibility and found Galbraith ineligible for the safety valve provisions of
II. Analysis
A. Motion to Suppress
Galbraith contends that the court below erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence seized from his property and to suppress the statement he gave on the day of the search. He argues that because the officers had no warrant, they were not entitled to go onto his land. He further argues that the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement is not available to the officers because the situation was not sufficiently urgent to justify immediate action. The evidence was inadmissible because it was obtained in violation of the Fourth Amendment, he argues. And his post-search statement was inadmissible fruit of the poisonous tree. Whether or not these arguments have merit, Galbraith foreclosed his right to raise them when he entered an unconditional plea of guilty to the charges. He did not, as permitted by
B. Relevant Conduct Calculation
Under the Sentencing Guidelines, the relevant conduct of one charged with manufacture, possession and distribution of drugs depends on the quantity of drugs manufactured, possessed and distributed. See
The prosecutor did not rely on Songer’s statements regarding either the 148 grams or the 850 to 1700 grams when calculating the drug amount constituting Galbraith’s relevant conduct. The prosecutor stated that “[o]ur position will be that [the drug amount] falls between the 350 to 500 in accordance with the PSI. . . . Roger Galbraith establishes more than . . . 350 grams. That’s corroborated by Calhoun. . . . If you put Songer in, it puts him nine grams over the 500, but I’m willing to concede that.” Sent. Tr. at 47. The trial court, however, did rely on Songer’s statements, noting that “[h]ere we have a Probation report that establishes relevant conduct between 350 and 500 grams, and yet I’m provided evidence that it’s clearly over 500 grams. . . . [T]here’s nothing to counter Songer here. The evidence that’s produced is such that I don’t see how this Court can make a finding below 500 grams. The evidence is clearly that it’s over 500 grams.” Sent. Tr. at 54. Later, speaking to Galbraith’s attorney, the trial court stated: “[Y]our client takes the position that he doesn’t even know Songer in his objections. And yet at this hearing I have been presented no evidence that he didn’t know him. Your client’s elected not to testify. If he was so convinced with his position and so sure of it, he probably would have testified. I’m not holding that against him. I’m just saying that I have evidence that this thing is over 500 grams.” Sent. Tr. at 56. As a result of holding Galbraith responsible for more than 500 grams, the judge was required under the Sentencing Guidelines to place Galbraith’s base offense level at 32 rather than 30.
Galbraith challenges the trial court’s decision to credit information provided by George Songer.2 The district court’s determination of the quantity of drugs involved in a defendant’s conduct is a finding of fact reviewed for clear error. United States v. Lanterman, 76 F.3d 158, 160 (7th Cir. 1996). We will reverse a district court’s conclusion regarding drug amount only if “after reviewing the record, we are left with the firm and definite conviction that a mistake has been made.” Id. (quoting United States v. Corral-Ibarra, 25 F.3d 430, 437 (7th Cir. 1994)). The government has a considerable advantage in proving a defendant’s relevant conduct. At sentencing it must prove the quantity of drugs only by a preponderance of the evidence. Lanterman, 76 F.3d at 160. Further, the Federal Rules of Evidence do not apply at sentencing,
There is one significant counterweight to these government advantages: the defendant has a due process right to be sentenced on the basis of reliable information. See Lanterman, 76 F.3d at 160. We have suggested that inconsistent evidence may be unreliable. See McEntire, 153 F.3d at 436. When evidence is inconsistent, the district court must undertake a “sufficiently searching inquiry into the government’s evidence to ensure its probable accuracy.” Id. This inquiry is particularly warranted where a witness has a history of drug use and admits his memory is not sharp. See id. (collecting cases). For instance, in McEntire, a witness offering information on the defendant’s relevant conduct first stated in a proffer that he gave the defendant 50 pounds of methamphetamine; he then testified at trial that he gave the defendant 80 to 100 pounds; the witness later signed an affidavit stating that he could not estimate the amount, and then he stated at a sentencing hearing that he gave him more than 100 pounds. Id. The witness admitted that he used “a lot” of methamphetamine and that it sometimes affected his memory. Id. The trial court accepted the 80 to 100 pound estimate without specifying why that was the most reliable estimate, and we reversed and remanded for a more searching inquiry. Similarly, in United States v. Beler, 20 F.3d 1428 (7th Cir. 1994), a witness to relevant conduct first stated that he purchased 150 to 200 ounces of cocaine from the defendant, then disclaimed any ability to pinpoint an amount, and finally set the amount at 15 to 20 ounces. See id. at 1430-33. We found the judge’s decision to credit the smaller amount unacceptable because he failed to explore the factual basis for these bare estimates. See id. at 1433-34. Similarly, in McEntire, we rejected as unreliable a witness’s “conclusory estimates . . . not supported . . . with any further explanations or details as to how he arrived at the amounts.” 153 F.3d at 437. Thus, consistent
Galbraith complains that Songer had been convicted of prior drug offenses, and was facing possible drug charges himself. He also decries the fact that Songer’s testimony was uncorroborated. These facts do not necessarily render him unreliable. See, e.g., Cedano-Rojas, 999 F.2d at 1180 (testimony of one biased witness may be sufficient to support a finding of fact); McEntire, 153 F.3d at 436 (trial court may credit uncorroborated testimony of a convicted felon and government informant).
We are more disturbed by the fact that Songer’s two interviews yielded vastly different information. In Songer’s first interview, he stated that Galbraith cooked about six ounces of methamphetamine in his home. No mention was made of additional drugs procured through Galbraith. In the second interview, Songer again stated that Galbraith cooked between six and eight ounces of methamphetamine. He added, however, that he had purchased between 30 and 60 ounces of methamphetamine produced by Galbraith. Songer’s initial silence and later loquaciousness on this score are troubling though not, strictly speaking, contradictory. The wide gulf between these stories, coupled with Songer’s admitted heavy drug use—he became addicted to hallucinogenic drugs at age 15; to methamphetamine at age 18, to cocaine powder at age 20, to crack cocaine at age 35 and apparently used between 850 and 1700 grams of methamphetamine during the period in question—suggest that the trial court might have performed a more searching inquiry than it did. The judge noted the discrepancy, and decided to credit Songer’s statement about the 148 grams, but not the larger amount. He did not explain why he found the latter statement reliable but the former suspicious. Given the government’s disavowal of Songer’s entire statement, an explanation demonstrating the judge’s scrutiny of the evidence might have been advisable.
Nevertheless, after reviewing the record as we are directed to do by Corral-Ibarra, 25 F.3d at 437, we are not left with a definite and firm conviction that the judge was mistaken to credit the testimony on the 148 grams but not on the larger amount. The testimony regarding the 148 grams bore indicia of reliability—facts and details—that were missing from the statement regarding the larger amount. Songer twice told officers that he observed Galbraith cook approximately this amount of methamphetamine in his home. He specified exact quantities cooked at
C. Obstruction of Justice
Galbraith also contests the trial judge’s decision to enhance his sentence two levels for obstruction of justice as provided for in
If a defendant does not object to the enhancement at the time of sentencing, the judge is entitled to adopt the PSR’s findings without making independent findings on the record. See
First, Galbraith argues in essence that two of his alleged perjurious statements (that officers did not read his Miranda rights, and threatened him to alter the content of his statement) were not false at all. Instead, he posits, the trial judge wrongly credited the government’s version of events rather than his own. Naturally, we review the trial court’s credibility determination with great deference. See, e.g., United States v. Agostino, 132 F.3d 1183, 1198 (7th Cir. 1997). The judge below heard the testimony and decided whom to believe, and in light of Galbraith’s subsequent turnaround on several of these issues, we cannot say this decision was erroneous.
Second, Galbraith complains that, even if his statements were false, the judge did not follow the proper procedure and go on to find that the falsehoods were material and willful. As discussed above, the judge needed only to adopt the PSR’s findings to satisfy the requirements of Dunnigan. The PSR did not include a specific finding of materiality. Because Galbraith did not dispute the enhancement, this failure is reviewed for plain error. That is, we ask whether the record’s silence on materiality was likely to have made a difference in the judgment. See Newman, 965 F.2d at 213. Here, because the PSR specifically detailed the falsehoods and the context constituting perjury, the judge was not prevented from drawing a meaningful conclusion about materiality. Further, the judge himself presided at the suppression hearing and took judicial notice of that hearing at the sentencing proceeding. The judge was better qualified than the author of the PSR to assess the materiality of Galbraith’s perjury, and the PSR’s silence did not affect the judgment or amount to plain error.
Next, Galbraith argues that, on the merits, his falsehoods were not material. We have stated that false testimony is material if it is “’designed to substantially affect the outcome of the case.’” United States v. Parker, 25 F.3d 442, 448 (7th Cir. 1994) (quoting Dunnigan, 507 U.S. at 95). In both Parker and Dunnigan, the lies at issue were alleged to have had a bearing on the final outcome of the case, namely the defendant’s guilt or innocence. The situation here is slightly different, because Galbraith testified falsely at a suppression hearing rather than a trial. Thus, in a strict sense even the most blatant falsehood he told would have had a direct effect only on the judge’s evidentiary ruling and at best an
This result was foreshadowed by United States v. Emenogha, 1 F.3d 473, 485 (7th Cir. 1993), in which we affirmed the district court’s application of an obstruction of justice enhancement based on perjury at a pretrial hearing. In Emenogha, the defendant stated at a suppression hearing that prior to executing a consent to search form, he and his family had been threatened by law enforcement officers. This lie was perjury because if believed it would have negated the defendant’s consent and perhaps rendered the search unconstitutional and its fruits inadmissible. Galbraith told two similar lies that if believed would have influenced the outcome of the suppression hearing. He told the court that on the day of the search, law enforcement officers did not read him his Miranda rights before he gave a statement. See Suppression Hrg. Tr. at 110. And he told the court that law enforcement officers threatened him with jail in order to make him alter the content of his statement. See id. The trial court, in its Memorandum and Order denying the motion to suppress, specifically stated that in deciding whether to admit Galbraith’s statement, “[t]he only question for the Court . . . is whether the defendants were informed of their Miranda rights.” Mem. at 8. Obviously, if this was the only question, and the trial judge had believed Galbraith’s version of events, he might well have suppressed Galbraith’s statement. Therefore, at least two of Galbraith’s falsehoods at the suppression hearing were designed to influence the outcome of the issue under determination, namely the admission of the statements. Other falsehoods, regarding the manufacturing operation in his home in the month before the search, were not obviously relevant to the outcome of the suppression hearing, and were not material.4
D. Acceptance of Responsibility
Galbraith next appeals the district court’s finding that he failed to accept responsibility and therefore did not qualify for the two-level reduction in base offense level offered by the Sentencing Guidelines. See
The Guidelines specifically state that “timely” notice of the intention to enter a guilty plea is a clear demonstration of acceptance of responsibility. See
E. Safety Valve Reduction
Finally, Galbraith contends that the judge erred by refusing to apply the provisions of
III. Conclusion
In sum, we dismiss Galbraith’s challenge to the denial of the motion to suppress. We affirm the trial court’s relevant conduct determination, the two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice, the denial of the acceptance of responsibility reduction and the denial of the safety valve provision.
Affirmed.
Notes
Galbraith: No, sir. . . .
Mr. Isaacson: Did [the officers] tell you anything before you made any statements?
Galbraith: That if I didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear that I would do life in jail.
Suppression Hrg. Tr. at 110.
