United States v. Wynn Lewis Robinson
Opinion
Opinion
Fletcher, J.
Defendant Wynn Lewis Robinson appeals his sentence of 63 months, pursuant to his plea of guilty to manufacturing marijuana with intent to distribute, a violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1). Robinson’s appeal presents a number of challenges to the district court’s finding that Robinson, at the time of his arrest, was cultivating 156 marijuana plants. He argues that the district court erred in counting as “plants” forty-eight rootless marijuana cuttings, that it erred in counting individual stalks growing from intertwined root systems as separate plants, that its finding that there were 108 mature plants is not supported by a preponderance of the evidence, and that it should have held an evidentiary hearing concerning the possibility that some of those 108 plants were no longer (or never had been) in the government’s possession.
We reverse the district court’s determination that rootless cuttings are to be counted as plants for sentencing purposes, and affirm in all other respects. Although the length of Robinson’s sentence is not affected, we remand so that the record can be corrected to reflect a sentence based on 108 rather than 156 marijuana plants.