United States v. Espinosa

Fidel Espinosa, having been convicted by a jury of four offenses involving cocaine trafficking, appeals the sentences he received in the district court for those offenses. The only question he raises is whether the district court, in ruling on Espinosa’s request for a two-level reduction of his base offense level under U.S.S.G. § 201.1(b)(6), 1 improperly deferred to the Government.

Section 2D1.1(b)(6) provides a two-level decrease for a defendant who meets the requirements of the safety-valve provision of 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f)(l)-(5) (listed verbatim in U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2). At issue here is the…