United States v. Craig

United States v. Craig

Opinion

 [*1251]  BALDOCK, Circuit Judge.

In 2013, a grand jury charged Defendant Christopher Craig with three separate counts as part of a twenty-seven-count indictment containing nine other co-defendants. The first count charged Defendant with conspiring to (a) manufacture, possess with intent to distribute, and distribute cocaine, cocaine base, and marijuana in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 and 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 & 846, and (b) maintain a druginvolved premises in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2 and 21 U.S.C. §§ 846 & 856. The other two counts charged Defendant with using a communication facility to commit this conspiracy in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(b). After Defendant pleaded guilty to these charges, the district court at sentencing calculated his total offense level as 43 after applying a murder cross-reference under [**2]  United States Sentencing Guidelines (U.S.S.G.) § 2D1.1(d), a leadership enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3B1.1(a), and an obstruction of justice enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. Combined with his category III criminal history, this corresponded to a sentence of life imprisonment for the conspiracy count and 48 months' imprisonment for the two communications facility counts. Defendant now asks us to rule that the district court erred in applying these enhancements and imposing the life sentence on him. Exercising jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742(a) and 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

The overarching conspiracy in which Defendant was involved operated in the Kansas City area and lasted from January 2006 until December 2012. Two men, Gregory Moore and Daniel Bryant, headed the conspiracy with the general purpose of distributing marijuana, cocaine, and cocaine base around the Kansas City metropolitan area. Defendant and others helped allocate these substances at Moore's and Bryant's direction.

After several encounters with law enforcement officers throughout the six years the conspiracy operated, Defendant's most significant criminal foray came in August 2012 when he organized the attempted robbery of rival drug-dealer Brandon Campbell. He recruited two cousins, DaRyan Pryor and Arterrius  [*1252]  Pryor, to actually commit [**3]  the robbery.¹ Defendant drove DaRyan and Arterrius to an apartment complex in south Kansas City, gave them guns and T-shirts to wear as face masks, and remained in the driver's seat of his vehicle and watched while the two men attempted to rob Campbell in the parking lot of the complex. In the midst of the robbery attempt, Campbell drew his gun and shot DaRyan. DaRyan later died from his wounds.

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