United States v. Kenneth Scott Pemberton

Kenneth Scott Pemberton appeals from the 21-month prison sentence he,received after his conviction for receiving stolen property, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 662 . He claims that the district court applied an erroneous measure of the value of the stolen goods, and therefore wrongly enhanced his offense level. We affirm.

FACTS

A jury convicted Pemberton of receiving property that had been stolen from Paul Comstock, a landscape architect, while Comstock was on assignment in Yosemite National Park. Among the various items received by Pemberton were thirty technical drawings of landscape and irrigation designs for a 450-acre commercial development.

The district court sentenced Pemberton under the federal guidelines, which provide that the offense level for receiving stolen property is the sum of 4 base points and a number of enhancement points determined by the value of the property. See U.S.S.G. § 2B1.2(a), (b). According to a sworn declaration by Comstock, the drawings had been commissioned by a client of his employer for approximately $140,000, and were 80% complete when stolen. Using these figures, the court valued the drawings at $118,400 (i.e., 80% of $140,000), and added 8…