United States v. Virgie L. Willis

Appellant Virgie L. Willis, who pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine, appeals the enhancement of her sentence under the United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines (“Guidelines”) based on the presence of a firearm during the commission of the offense. She claims that that enhancement was inappropriate since the gun was in the possession of a co-conspirator and there was no evidence in the record indicating that she knew about its presence. We reject this argument and affirm.

FACTS

On October 14, 1988, officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) task force arrested appellant for her participation in a cocaine selling operation in Shelton, Washington. Appellant was apprehended along with her husband, Henry Willis, and Terry Lee Jewell. Ms. Willis subsequently pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and was sentenced, pursuant to the Guidelines, to forty-one months imprisonment and three years of supervised release. In arriving at her base offense level under the Guidelines, the district judge applied a two-level upward adjustment, pursuant to Guidelines section 2Dl.l(b)(l), based on her husband’s possession of a firearm at the time…