United States Fourth Circuit

Defendant's conviction and sentence for conspiring to traffic in 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, and of additional charges including from kidnapping and murder in connection with her trafficking operation, are affirmed, where: 1) there being no legitimate basis to suppress the recordings of the interviews, the district court did not err in admitting them; 2) the error of the district court's vacation of the bench during the replay of the interviews was harmless; 3) although the district court made an error in its drug quantity instruction, the government proved that the conspiracy trafficked in tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana over its ten-year course, amounting to many multiples of the quantity required to impose a life sentence.

Appellate Information

• Decided 07/01/2014
• Published 07/01/2014

Judges

• KING

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel