Filed: Nov. 30, 2010
Latest Update: Feb. 21, 2020
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ FILED U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 10-10950 NOVEMBER 30, 2010 Non-Argument Calendar JOHN LEY _ CLERK D.C. Docket No. 0:09-cr-60284-WPD-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ANITA SIMONE SMELLIE, Defendant-Appellant. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida _ (November 30, 2010) Before EDMONDSON, CARNES and MARTIN, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM:
Summary: [DO NOT PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT _ FILED U.S. COURT OF APPEALS ELEVENTH CIRCUIT No. 10-10950 NOVEMBER 30, 2010 Non-Argument Calendar JOHN LEY _ CLERK D.C. Docket No. 0:09-cr-60284-WPD-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ANITA SIMONE SMELLIE, Defendant-Appellant. _ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida _ (November 30, 2010) Before EDMONDSON, CARNES and MARTIN, Circuit Judges. PER CURIAM: A..
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[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________ FILED
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
No. 10-10950
NOVEMBER 30, 2010
Non-Argument Calendar
JOHN LEY
________________________ CLERK
D.C. Docket No. 0:09-cr-60284-WPD-1
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
ANITA SIMONE SMELLIE,
Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Southern District of Florida
_________________________
(November 30, 2010)
Before EDMONDSON, CARNES and MARTIN, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Anita Simone Smellie pleaded guilty to knowingly and intentionally
possessing cocaine with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1)
and (b)(1)(B). The district court sentenced her to the mandatory minimum term of
60 months in prison. Smellie challenges her sentence, contending that the district
court erred when it determined Smellie was not telling the truth and thus was not
entitled to “safety valve” relief under United States Sentencing Guidelines §
5C1.2.
I.
Smellie’s conviction was a result of her attempt to bring 1,487 grams of
cocaine into the United States from Jamaica through the Ft. Lauderdale
International Airport. Customs Border Protection officers noticed that she
appeared nervous. Upon further inspection, the officers found cocaine inside the
lining of her purse.
Smellie’s first story was that the purse was not hers. She said that it
belonged to her friend “G” that she stayed with while she was in Jamaica and that
she did not know that there were drugs in the purse. She stated that she did not
know “G’s” real name, and she could only describe him as a tall, bald, thin, black
Jamaican.
Smellie later told a second story, recanting part of her first one. She
acknowledged her involvement in knowingly smuggling the drugs into the United
States. Even so, she continued to assert that she did not have any additional
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information about “G.” She also asserted that she was not being given any sort of
compensation to smuggle the cocaine.
Under a plea agreement, Smellie pleaded guilty to knowingly possessing
more than 500 grams of cocaine with the intent to distribute it. She also provided
a written statement, mirroring her second story, which she contended contained all
of her knowledge regarding the crime. The government was not convinced that
Smellie was telling the whole truth. It agreed to administer, and Smellie agreed to
undergo, a polygraph examination that would be admissible at the sentence
hearing. She was asked three questions; Smellie and the government agree that
her answers to all three questions registered as “deceptive.” This included her
going back to her first story and saying that she did not know that the purse
contained drugs—despite her plea and her admission in the second story. She also
contradicted herself and created a third story, asserting that she thought the drugs
were marijuana. One constant in all of her stories was her contention that she was
not being compensated for carrying the drugs; this answer, like her stories, also
registered as deceptive in the polygraph examination.
At the sentence hearing the district court denied Smellie’s request for safety
valve relief and sentenced her to the statutory minimum of 60 months in prison. It
found that Smellie did not truthfully provide the government with all the
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information she had regarding the crime. Specifically, the district court did not
believe that a person whom Smellie did not know well enough to even know his
real name would give her 1,487 grams of cocaine without any plan to get it back
from her, or that Smellie would smuggle so much cocaine for no compensation or
any other type of consideration. The district court found that the stipulated
polygraph examination results further supported the finding that she was not being
truthful.
II.
“This court reviews a district court’s factual determinations and subsequent
denial of ‘safety valve’ relief for clear error.” United States v. Camacho,
261 F.3d
1071, 1073 (11th Cir. 2001). The safety valve provision in the sentencing
guidelines, “which implements 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f), requires a district court to
sentence a defendant in certain drug-possession cases without regard to any
statutory minimum sentence if the defendant meets five criteria.” United States v.
Brownlee,
204 F.3d 1302, 1304 (11th Cir. 2000) (quotation marks omitted). Of
those five criteria in U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2, only the fifth requirement is disputed here.
A defendant satisfies the fifth requirement if “not later than the time of the
sentencing hearing, the defendant has truthfully provided to the Government all
information and evidence the defendant has concerning the offense . . . .”
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U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2(a)(5). The burden is on the defendant to show that she has met
all of the safety valve requirements. United States v. Johnson,
375 F.3d 1300,
1302 (11th Cir. 2004).
Smellie has failed to meet her burden of showing that she met the fifth
safety valve requirement. See U.S.S.G. § 5C1.2(a)(5). The district court
reasonably concluded that Smellie failed to truthfully provide the government with
all the information related to her conviction based on (1) her far-fetched story that
“G”—a person whom she says she does not know well enough to even know his
real name—would give her 1,487 grams of cocaine without any plan to retrieve it,
(2) her far-fetched story that Smellie would take the risk of transporting 1,487
grams of cocaine for “G” out of the kindness of her heart, and (3) the results from
the polygraph examination showing that she provided deceptive answers when
asked about her far-fetched stories.
AFFIRMED.
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