Free Response - District Court of Arizona - Arizona

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PAUL K. CHARLTON United States Attorney District of Arizona JOSEPH C. WELTY Assistant U.S. Attorney Arizona State Bar No. 012409 40 N. Central, Suite 1200 Phoenix, AZ 85004 Telephone: (602) 514-7500 [email protected]

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF ARIZONA United States of America, CR-02-00394-PHX-EHC Plaintiff, v. Gregory Lee Stauffer, Defendant. The United States of America, by and through counsel undersigned, hereby responds to the GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE TO THE COURT'S ORDER OF OCTOBER 7, 2005

15 Court's order of October 7, 2005, wherein the Court referred a request of the defendant to the 16 Government for its consideration. 17 Defendant Stauffer pled guilty on September 10 , 2002, to five counts of possession of 18 stolen mail and conversion of postal money orders. On June 3, 2003, the defendant was 19 sentenced to seventy-one months in prison, to be followed by a thirty-six month term of 20 supervised release. According to the October 7, 2005, court order, the court recommended to 21 the Bureau of Prisons on September 9, 2005, that the defendant be allowed to participate in a 22 residential drug abuse program (RDAP) when eligible. According to an undated letter from the 23 defendant to the court, the defendant completed the RDAP on September 2, 2005. Though 24 individuals who complete such a program generally get some time deducted from their 25 sentences, according to the defendant, the institution in which he is serving his time does not 26 give such credit to inmates who are serving time for gun charges, or received a sentencing 27 enhancement for use of a firearm. The Court's order of October 7, 2005, notes that the 28 September 10, 2002, plea agreement does not refer to a firearm.

Case 2:02-cr-00394-EHC

Document 67

Filed 03/10/2006

Page 1 of 2

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Undersigned counsel has looked into whether the defendant's sentence included a firearm

2 enhancement. The Presentence Report in this case recommended a two point adjustment under 3 section 2B1.1(b)(11)(B) as the "offense involved the possession of a firearm in connection with 4 the offense." Presentence Report at paragraph 34. 5 At sentencing, the defendant objected to the firearms enhancement arguing that the gun was

6 merely present. This court ruled "With respect to the firearm, I believe, Mr. Nickerson, Mr. 7 Stauffer, that all reasonable inferences in all of the records support the fact that Mr. Stauffer had 8 a firearm, carried it in his car for purposes of his criminal activities." (RT 6/3/03 at 73.) The 9 court then overruled the defendant's objection and calculated the above-mentioned sentence 10 based upon the addition of the firearms enhancement. 11 Undersigned counsel defers to the Bureau of Prisons as to whether, and under what

12 circumstances, it will credit a defendant's sentence for participation in a drug treatment program. 13 With respect to whether the defendant's sentence was enhanced because he possessed a firearm 14 during the commission of his offense, it is clear that he did and that this court found that he did. 15 16 17 18 19 20 CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE 21 I hereby certify that on March 10, 2006,
I electronically transmitted the attached

Respectfully submitted this 10th day of March 2006. PAUL K. CHARLTON United States Attorney District of Arizona s/ Joseph C. Welty JOSEPH C. WELTY Assistant U.S. Attorney

22 document to the Clerk's Office using the
CM/ECF system for filing and

23 sent by U.S. mail to: 24 FMC-Houston - Federal Medical Center 25 P.O. Box 15330
Ft. Worth, TX 76119 s/ Joseph C. Welty Gregory Lee Stauffer, 46861-008

26 27 JOSEPH C. WELTY 28
Assistant U.S. Attorney

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