Aider-and-Abettor’s Personal Use Drugs Properly Included in Relevant Conduct

US v. Williamson: Williamson pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting the distribution of methamphetamine along with his girlfriend. At sentencing, the district court, in determining relevant conduct based primarily on the girlfriend’s testimony, included in that amount the methamphetamine Williamson had given her that she used herself. Williamson was eventually sentenced to 121 months in prison, within the resulting advisory Guideline range.

On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed Williamson’s sentence. The issue, the court noted, was whether drugs consumed for personal use by other members of jointly undertaken drug activity (conspiracies or aiding-and-abetting setups) could be considered relevant conduct. The court concluded it could, based on its reading of the Guidelines and the general scheme of basing drug sentences on the amount of drugs involved (there’s a lengthy background section on this in the opinion). Because, the court held, the ultimate question is the amount of drugs involved in the scheme itself, it didn’t matter what another person in the scheme did with them once they got the drugs. In Williamson’s case, the drugs he gave to his girlfriend were relevant conduct whether she consumed them herself or resold them. The court did note that it was not addressing the issue of whether the defendant’s own personal use amount of drugs should be included in relevant conduct calculations.