U.S. v. Harris

Dist. Ct. did not commit plain error in conducting defendants’ drug conspiracy trial that was occurring at start of COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020 at time when other courts were suspending trials. Record suggested that jury had carefully considered evidence in spite of pandemic by returning mixed verdicts for two defendants. Moreover, nothing at time of trial suggested that pandemic stopped jury from deciding case solely on evidence. Record also contained sufficient evidence to support one defendant’s conspiracy conviction, even though defendant argued that he purchased drugs only for his personal drug business, where: (1) defendant purchased wholesale drug quantities from member of conspiracy; (2) defendant was fronted drugs on daily basis by member of conspiracy, sold drugs from same trap house that other members of conspiracy sold drugs, acted as courier of drugs to other members of conspiracy and helped with security. Dist. Ct. also did not err in sentencing one defendant to 360-month term of incarceration, even though others in conspiracy received minimum 120-month sentence, where Dist. Ct. could properly find that: (1) defendant was near top of conspiracy hierarchy; (2) defendant had multiple prior convictions; and (3) defendant’s proposed comparatives had mitigating circumstances or had pleaded guilty to charged offense. Also, another defendant could challenge his sentence on ground that Dist. Ct.'s written judgment calling for five-year supervisory period did not match Dist. Ct.’s prior oral judgment, even though defendant had entered into appeal waiver. Ct. of Appeals, though, found that there was no discrepancy between Dist. Ct.'s oral and written judgments.