United States v. Arthur Howard Hill, AKA Sonny Hill

We must decide whether the district court erred in upwardly adjusting the base offense level under the federal Sentencing Guidelines for abuse of a position of public or private trust.

I

On March 21 and 22,1988, in his capacity as an employee-driver for Interstate Container, Inc. of Long Beach, California (“Interstate Container”), Hill picked up in Kansas and Missouri furniture and several crates containing the household goods and personal possessions of five military families (“families”) who were being relocated to Germany. Hill was responsible for transporting their belongings to Texas, where they would eventually be shipped abroad.

On March 26, 1988, instead of delivering the belongings to Texas, Hill and his brother-in-law opened the crates and sold or traded several of the household items to various individuals in and around Licking, Missouri. Some of the families’ personal belongings, including photographs, cards, and letters, were destroyed. In exchange for one of the stolen items, Hill obtained the use of a barn in Licking in which he stored some of the misappropriated crates.

Hill was apprehended, and on April 11, 1988, a federal grand jury in the Western District of…