The joys of loss calculations

Anyone who enjoys federal guideline minutiae should be sure to check out today’s work by the Eleventh Circuit in US v. Cedeno, No. 05-16616 (11th Cir. Dec. 6, 2006) (available here).  Here is the introduction to whet appetites:

Valentin Cedeno and Angel Concepcion participated in smash-and-grab job, using sledgehammers to bash open a large display case at Mayor’s Jewelers in Boca Raton, Florida.  They made off with 108 expensive watches with a total value of $1,485,000.  The store got the watches back after the police recovered them, and it spent $13,929 repairing the damage some of the watches suffered during the smashing and grabbing….  The key issue at sentencing was the amount of “loss” under United States Sentencing Guidelines §§ 2B3.1(b)(7)(E)–(F). If the loss did not exceed $1,500,000, Cedeno and Concepcion were due a four-step increase in the offense level, but if it exceeded $1,500,000, they were in line for a five-step increase.