U.S. v. Hines

Dist. Ct. erred in sentencing defendant to 168-month term of incarceration based, in part, on finding that defendant possessed 1.5 kilograms of crack cocaine, which, in turn, increased defendant's guidelines sentencing range. Remand was required for new calculation of drug quantity where Dist. Ct. improperly assumed 1:1 conversion ratio when calculating amount of crack cocaine that had been processed from powder cocaine. Moreover, record otherwise suggested that: (1) Dist. Ct. may have double counted amount of crack cocaine from amounts defendant conceded he had possessed; and (2) defendant may have sold some powder cocaine that Dist. Ct. had assumed was later processed into crack cocaine.