United States v. Teddrick Hill

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

United States v. Teddrick Hill

Opinion

USCA4 Appeal: 23-4706 Doc: 29 Filed: 01/28/2025 Pg: 1 of 4

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 23-4706

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.

TEDDRICK LAMONT HILL,

Defendant - Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. Thomas D. Schroeder, District Judge. (1:23-cr-00020-TDS-2)

Submitted: January 14, 2025 Decided: January 28, 2025

Before WILKINSON, KING, and GREGORY, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

ON BRIEF: Sophia L. Harvey, LIAO HARVEY PC, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for Appellant. Clifton Thomas Barrett, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. USCA4 Appeal: 23-4706 Doc: 29 Filed: 01/28/2025 Pg: 2 of 4

PER CURIAM:

Teddrick Lamont Hill pled guilty to distribution of a quantity of cocaine base, in

violation of

21 U.S.C. § 841

(a)(1), (b)(1)(C). The district court sentenced Hill to 151

months’ imprisonment and 3 years of supervised release. Hill’s counsel has filed a brief

pursuant to Anders v. California,

386 U.S. 738

(1967), stating that there are no meritorious

issues for appeal, but raising as an issue for review whether the district court erred in

determining that Hill was responsible under the Sentencing Guidelines for fentanyl

quantities recovered from the apartment in which he and his co-defendant distributed drugs

and distributed by the co-defendant. The Government declined to file a brief. Hill was

informed of his right to file a pro se supplemental brief, but he has not done so. We affirm.

“We review the district court’s calculation of the quantity of drugs attributable to a

defendant for sentencing purposes for clear error.” United States v. Williamson,

953 F.3d 264, 272

(4th Cir. 2020) (internal quotation marks omitted). Under this standard, reversal

is not warranted unless we are “left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has

been committed.” United States v. Crawford,

734 F.3d 339, 342

(4th Cir. 2013) (internal

quotation marks omitted). “[I]n order to attribute to a defendant for sentencing purposes

the acts of others in jointly-undertaken criminal activity, those acts must have been within

the scope of the defendant’s agreement and must have been reasonably foreseeable to the

defendant.” United States v. Flores-Alvarado,

779 F.3d 250, 255

(4th Cir. 2015)

(cleaned up); see U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual § 1B1.3(a)(1)(B) (2021).

We conclude that the district court’s determinations were not clearly erroneous. The

evidence in the presentence report the district court adopted established that Hill and the

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co-defendant were engaged in the joint criminal enterprise of distributing drugs from 2019

through 2022, including fentanyl quantities distributed by the co-defendant. The pair also

worked together to distribute cocaine base and fentanyl from the apartment. The apartment

was the place Hill asked a prospective purchaser to visit to purchase cocaine base and was

the place where the co-defendant distributed quantities of cocaine base and cocaine. Law

enforcement searched the apartment and recovered quantities of marijuana, cocaine base,

cocaine, and a quantity of fentanyl. Hill was present at the apartment when the drugs were

seized from it, and phone conversations between Hill and the co-defendant established their

knowledge of the drugs present there and Hill’s view that drugs belonging to him had been

seized. Given Hill’s awareness of the pair’s distribution efforts that included fentanyl, their

joint and individual drug dealing activities connected to the apartment, and Hill’s presence

at the apartment with fentanyl and other drug quantities of which he was aware and a

portion of which he claimed to own, we conclude that the district court did not commit

reversible error in determining drug quantity. See Butts v. United States,

930 F.3d 234, 238

(4th Cir. 2019) (noting that this court may find clear error only if the court’s findings

were “not supported by substantial evidence in the record” (internal quotation marks

omitted)).

In accordance with Anders, we have reviewed the entire record in this case and have

found no meritorious grounds for appeal. We therefore affirm the district court’s judgment.

This court requires that counsel inform Hill, in writing, of the right to petition the Supreme

Court of the United States for further review. If Hill requests that a petition be filed, but

counsel believes that such a petition would be frivolous, then counsel may move in this

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court for leave to withdraw from representation. Counsel’s motion must state that a copy

thereof was served on Hill.

We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal contentions are

adequately presented in the materials before this court and argument would not aid the

decisional process.

AFFIRMED

4

Reference

Status
Unpublished