U.S. v. Hacha

Dist. Ct. did not err in sentencing defendant to 87-month term of incarceration on extortion charges in which defendant had obtained $55,000 from victim after convincing victim that he had kidnapped former victim’s girlfriend and would harm victim’s parents. Dist. Ct. could properly impose two-level enhancement under section 2B3.2(b)(2) of USSG based on defendant’s demand of $75,000 plus new car, and defendant could not negate effect of said demand, even though victim allegedly owed debt to defendant. Moreover, Dist. Ct. could properly add another three offense levels to sentence based on defendant’s demonstrated ability to carry out threatened harm to victim’s family, where record showed that defendant had researched address and other personal information about victim’s family. Also, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant any reduction in offense level based on his guilty plea, where defendant had attempted to enlist another individual to intimidate victim into not testifying against defendant, and where defendant had falsely claimed at guilty plea hearing that he had never taken any money from victim.