United States v. Kenneth Carpenter

Carpenter appeals his sentence following his guilty plea to three counts of a seven count indictment which arose out of Carpenter’s plot to have his estranged wife murdered. Carpenter argues that the district court erred by departing upward from the applicable guideline range of 51-63 months and instead sentencing him to 108 months of incarceration. The district court exercised jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231 . We have jurisdiction over this timely appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

I

Carpenter, along with his codefendant Ganton, both of whom lived in Los Ange-les, California, hired two juveniles to murder Carpenter’s estranged wife, Billie, who, along with her three children, lived in Mon-tesano, Washington. Carpenter and Gan-ton agreed to pay the juveniles $20,000 for the murder.

The murder plan, as conceived by Carpenter and Ganton, was for the juveniles to travel to Montesano, steal a logging truck, and then lie in wait for Billie along a road which Carpenter knew she would travel on an appointed day. The juveniles were instructed to use the truck to force Billie’s car off the road and cause her death. As a contingency plan,…