United States v. St. Clair

MEMORANDUM *

Craig St. Clair (“St.Clair”) pleaded guilty to possession of counterfeit postal arrow keys, and possession of at least 15 unauthorized access devices, namely credit cards. St. Clair was sentenced to 135 months in federal custody. On appeal, St. Clair contends that the district court clearly erred by 1) overestimating the intended loss calculation, and 2) concluding that several of his prior convictions were not related. He also argues that his sentencing counsel was ineffective.

Intended Loss

The district court’s determination of the amount of loss is reviewed for clear error. United States v. Scrivener, 189 F.3d 944, 949 (9th Cir.1999).

The district court did not clearly err by using the eighteen checks that St. Clair passed or attempted to pass to fashion a “reasonable estimate” of the intended loss with respect to the 3,128 blank checks. U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 2B1.1, cmt. n. 2(C) (2001). Although the sample size was relatively small, as a percentage of the total number of stolen checks, the district court relied on a sufficient amount of “available information” regarding past conduct to arrive at a reasonable estimate of future conduct. Id. In…