UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Vernon WATTS, Defendant-Appellant

OPINION

FLETCHER, Circuit Judge:

Vernon Watts appeals his conviction and sentence for possessing with the intent to distribute crack cocaine. We affirm the conviction but vacate Watts’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The events leading to Watts’s arrest and conviction began with the suspicions of Watts’s probation officer, John Demmel. Although California’s probationers are subject to a condition authorizing warrantless searches of their property, Demmel was well aware that some probationers would lie to their probation officers about where they were living so they…