USA v. Vernon Marcus Coleman

FILED
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
SEPTEMBER 21, 2011
JOHN LEY
CLERK
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 11-10620
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 1:07-cr-00233-ODE-RGV-3
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff-Appellee,
versus
VERNON MARCUS COLEMAN,
a.k.a. Wu,
llllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Defendant-Appellant.
________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Northern District of Georgia
________________________
(September 21, 2011)
Before WILSON, PRYOR and BLACK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:

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Vernon Coleman appeals his sentence of 87 months of imprisonment for
conspiring to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. 21 U.S.C. § 846.
Coleman argues that his sentence is unreasonable. We affirm.
Coleman’s sentence is procedurally and substantively reasonable. Coleman
facilitated the sale of more than 150 kilograms of cocaine by the Black Mafia
Family to a drug dealer in Birmingham, Alabama. After Coleman learned that he
had been indicted, he assumed a false identity and evaded arrest for at least two
years. Although the district court was “not too sure that [it] agree[d] with” the
arrangement between the United States and Coleman to award him an adjustment
for a minor role in the conspiracy based on his background as described in the
presentence investigation report, the district court reduced Coleman’s offense
level and then correctly calculated Coleman’s advisory guideline range of 70 to 87
months of imprisonment. The district court reasonably determined that a sentence
at the high end of the guideline range “appropriately reflect[ed] the seriousness of
[Coleman’s] criminal conduct,” and took “into account the very large amount of
drug distribution that [he] was involved in, his obvious knowledge of the very
widespread nature of the drug conspiracy,” and the “huge amounts of drugs [that]
were being distributed by [the] group.” Coleman argues that there is an
unwarranted disparity between his sentence of 87 months of imprisonment and the
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64-month sentence that the district court imposed on his codefendant, Barima
McKnight, but the two men were not similarly situated, see United States v.
Spoerke, 568 F.3d 1236, 1252 (11th Cir. 2009). In contrast to Coleman’s role as a
facilitator and intermediary between distributors of large amounts of cocaine,
McKnight loaded and unloaded cocaine and money and counted money. The
district court did not abuse its discretion.
We AFFIRM Coleman’s sentence.
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