Weech

MEMORANDUM **

Del Eugene Weech challenges his six-month sentence for bank fraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344 . He argues that the district court erred by incorporating his prior state conviction for passing bad checks in the calculation of his criminal history level. The court determined that his prior sentence in state court for check fraud was “for conduct not part of the instant offense” within the meaning of United States Sentencing Guidelines (USSG) § 4A1.2(a)(l) and added one point to his criminal history for that sentence, pursuant to USSG § 4Al.l(c).

This court reviews de novo a district court’s determination that conduct underlying a prior sentence was not “part of’ that underlying the instant offense, within the meaning of USSG § 4A1.2(a)(l). United States v. Buchanan, 59 F.3d 914, 918 (9th Cir.1995).

The prior conduct at issue is another scheme to steal money by issuing bad checks to a supermarket. Weech argues that this series of bad checks was part of a “common scheme or plan” or the “same course of conduct” as the federal check kiting scheme for which he is being sentenced in this case. USSG § 1B1.3. Comment 9(A) to USSG § 1B1.3 suggests that a “common scheme…