United States v. James France

── United States v. James France ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit Date: June 03, 2026 Category: General NOT PRECEDENTIAL UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT ____________ No. 25-1761 ____________ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. JAMES FRANCE, Appellant ____________ On Appeal from the United States District Court For the Western District of Pennsylvania (D.C. No. 2:21-cr-00235-001) District Judge: Honorable Mark R. Hornak ____________ Submitted Under Third Circuit L.A.R. 34.1(a) March 23, 2026 Before: HARDIMAN, SCIRICA, and AMBRO, Circuit Judges. (Filed: June 3, 2026) ____________ OPINION* ____________ HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge. James France appeals his judgment of sentence for methamphetamine trafficking. * This disposition is not an opinion of the full Court and pursuant to I.O.P. 5.7 does not constitute binding precedent. He argues that the District Court erred in calculating his Guidelines range because it wrongly deemed a prior instance of possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute “relevant conduct” under the United States Sentencing Guidelines § 1B1.3(a)(2). We will affirm. I A jury convicted France of possessing with intent to distribute and distributing 50 or more grams of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(A)(viii). The trial evidence showed that in June 2016, France sold 55 grams of pure methamphetamine to a repeat customer—Paul Theriault—who was cooperating with federal agents and wearing a concealed recording device. At sentencing, the Government introduced further evidence of France’s methamphetamine-trafficking operation. Agents recounted statements from Theriault that France typically obtained his methamphetamine by traveling to California to purchase bulk quantities from suppliers in that state. Other evidence showed that France sold his California-sourced methamphetamine in smaller quantities to users in multiple states, including at least Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. The Government also introduced at sentencing evidence of an incident in 2015 where police in Kinmundy, Illinois arrested France for possessing methamphetamine with intent to distribute. The police were called out to a dead-end road where they discovered France sitting in his SUV and two men—one associate of France’s and one local resident—standing outside. France and his associate were passing through Illinois on their way back to Pittsburgh and stopped off so the associate could have sex with the 2 local man in France’s SUV. Suspecting drug activity, the officers summoned a K-9 unit and then found nearly 50 grams of methamphetamine alongside scales, plastic bags, and other drug-distribution paraphernalia. The police took France and his associate to the county jail, where they stayed overnight. The next day, France asked an officer to retrieve medication from his car. The officer obliged, and while in France’s car he noticed a bag of what appeared to be more methamphetamine. The officer then obtained a warrant before seizing the bag, which contained over 1,300 grams of the drug. The officer also found more paraphernalia and discovered that the most recent entries in the SUV’s GPS were addresses in California and Neva