United States v. Jerry Baker

── United States v. Jerry Baker ── Court: Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Date: June 04, 2026 Category: General NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 26a0256n.06 Case No. 25-3236 UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED Jun 04, 2026 KELLY L. STEPHENS, Clerk UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ) ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE ) UNITED STATES DISTRICT v. ) COURT FOR THE NORTHERN ) DISTRICT OF OHIO JERRY BAKER, ) Defendant-Appellant. ) OPINION ) ) Before: BOGGS, CLAY, and GILMAN, Circuit Judges. RONALD LEE GILMAN, Circuit Judge. Jerry Baker pleaded guilty to nine counts of various criminal offenses relating to his trafficking in large quantities of marijuana in Cleveland, Ohio. He was sentenced to 168 months in prison and four years of supervised release. On appeal, Baker challenges only his sentence. He argues that the district court imposed a procedurally unreasonable sentence when it applied an enhancement for making credible threats of violence. And he contends that his sentence is substantively unreasonable because the court gave insufficient weight to the evidence that he presented on mitigating factors. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM the judgment of the district court. I. BACKGROUND Baker was the leader of a major drug-trafficking organization. The organization purchased marijuana from Walter Sornoza in Los Angeles, California. Baker often sold the drugs from the premises of In and Out Tires in Cleveland, a shop that he owned with his father. When Baker was No. 25-3236, United States v. Baker not present at In and Out Tires, he directed drug customers to the shop to purchase drugs from his father, from his associate Deshaun Martin, and from others. And sometimes Baker and Martin sold the drugs from their own residences. Baker and Martin collected the proceeds of the drug sales and directed their associates to convert the proceeds into money orders. Moniqka Hazzard, Baker’s girlfriend, typically flew to California on commercial airlines to deliver the money orders to Sornoza to repay him for the drugs. By November 2022, Baker was owed $10,000 for drugs purchased by Victim B. Baker drove to a bar and restaurant called Aura Social Club (Aura) on or about November 11, 2022, intending to collect on the debt. Early in the morning on November 11, he had several phone conversations with Hazzard, Martin, and another individual referred to in the record simply as L.H. These calls were intercepted by law enforcement. Armed with a knife, Baker, along with four of his associates, arrived at Aura and waited for Victim B to exit the front door of the establishment. Baker recounted to Hazzard: “I got my knife. . . . I’m just about to slice [him]. Soon as he come out the door[,] I’m about to take one buck, right across his face, right.” But instead of exiting Aura through the front door, Victim B went through the back door with Victim D. This angered Baker. He recounted to Hazzard that he told Victim D that Victim D was now respo