UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, ┐ Plaintiff-Appellant, │ │ > No. 18-4081 v. │ │ │ JURMAINE A. JEFFRIES, │ Defendant-Appellee. │ ┘

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio at Akron. No. 5:16-cr-00180-1—Solomon Oliver, Jr., District Judge.

Argued: October 17, 2019

Decided and Filed: May 8, 2020

Before: BOGGS, BATCHELDER, and DONALD, Circuit Judges. _________________

COUNSEL ARGUED: Megan R. Miller, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellant. Claire R. Cahoon, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Toledo, Ohio, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Megan R. Miller, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY’S OFFICE, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellant. Claire R. Cahoon, FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Toledo, Ohio, for Appellee.

BATCHELDER, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which BOGGS, J., joined. DONALD, J. (pp. 12–23), delivered a separate dissenting opinion. No. 18-4081 United States v. Jeffries Page 2

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OPINION _________________

ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge. A jury convicted Jurmaine Jeffries of drug- related offenses, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C). The district court granted Jeffries’s motion for a new trial, finding that it erroneously failed to include jury instructions that required the United States to prove proximate causation in addition to but-for causation. On appeal, the United States argues that § 841(b)(1)(C) requires proof of only but-for causation. We agree and therefore REVERSE and REMAND for sentencing.

I.

On September 16, 2016, police officers discovered J.H. deceased in her home. Near J.H.’s body lay an array of drug paraphernalia, including a small bag of brown powder, later determined to be .58 grams of fentanyl. The officers found text messages in J.H.’s cellphone that indicated that she had attempted to buy or had bought drugs from Jeffries earlier that day. The officers, pretending to be J.H., texted Jeffries and requested more drugs.

Forty-five minutes later, Jeffries arrived at J.H.’s home and the officers arrested him. A search of Jeffries’s car revealed separately packaged bags holding 1.69 grams of fentanyl, as well as a cellphone containing the text messages sent from J.H.’s cellphone. In Jeffries’s pocket, the officers found $446 and another bag of fentanyl, containing 36.14 grams of fentanyl.

Jeffries was charged with one count of possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute and one count of distributing fentanyl, the use of which resulted in death. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(C). At trial, two medical experts testified that the amount of fentanyl in J.H.’s system was “significantly above the lethal level” and that no other “anatomical issues” could have caused J.H.’s death. R. 143, PageID#: 1662, 1664. Jeffries asked the district court to instruct the jury that, to impose § 841(b)(1)(C)’s sentencing enhancement, the government was required to “prove beyond a r