Background
Jeff Allen Adkins pleaded guilty to one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl in the Southern District of West Virginia. The district court sentenced him to 152 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Adkins appealed, arguing that the district court abused its discretion and committed procedural error when calculating his offense level. Specifically, he challenged the court’s use of statements he made to police officers as relevant-conduct evidence supporting additional drug quantities.
The Court’s Holding
The Fourth Circuit affirmed Adkins’s sentence in an unpublished per curiam opinion. After reviewing the record, the panel found no reversible error.
The court affirmed for the reasons stated by the district court in imposing the 152-month sentence. It decided the appeal without oral argument because the written materials adequately presented the facts and legal issues and argument would not aid the decisional process.
Key Takeaways
- The Fourth Circuit upheld Adkins’s 152-month prison sentence and three-year term of supervised release.
- The panel rejected his claim that using his police statements to calculate additional drug quantities produced reversible procedural error.
- The unpublished opinion is not binding precedent in the Fourth Circuit.
Why It Matters
The decision leaves intact the district court’s use of Adkins’s statements as relevant-conduct evidence in calculating drug quantity and his advisory sentencing range. Because the appellate opinion summarily adopts the district court’s reasoning and is unpublished, it provides limited precedential guidance beyond the disposition of Adkins’s appeal.