United States v. Alex Jackson

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 18, 2022
Docket21-5297
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Alex Jackson (United States v. Alex Jackson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Alex Jackson, (6th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION File Name: 22a0077n.06

No. 21-5297

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT FILED ) Feb 18, 2022 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, DEBORAH S. HUNT, Clerk ) ) Plaintiff-Appellee, ) ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED ) v. STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE ) MIDDLE DISTRICT OF TENNESSEE ) ALEX JACKSON, ) OPINION ) Defendant-Appellant. )

Before: CLAY, GRIFFIN, and STRANCH, Circuit Judges.

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. A jury convicted Alex Jackson of being a felon in

possession of a firearm. Jackson appeals the sufficiency of the evidence to support his conviction

of firearm possession and the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence recovered

from a Terry stop. We AFFIRM the district court on both issues.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

On October 23, 2019, Jackson, and his co-defendant Corey Webster, were indicted for

being felons in possession of a firearm in violation of 19 U.S.C. §§ 922(g) and 924. Jackson

moved to suppress the evidence obtained by law enforcement when the Jeep Patriot that he was

driving and in which Webster was riding was stopped. The district court denied the motion on the

record after an evidentiary hearing. The court then held a two-day trial. After the jury found

Jackson guilty, the court sentenced Jackson to 30 months of imprisonment. Jackson timely No. 21-5297, United States v. Jackson

appealed. Because the pretrial suppression hearing evidence is separate from the evidence

presented to the jury at trial, we examine the evidence presented at each stage separately.

A. Suppression Hearing Evidence

At the hearing, Government witness Sergeant Jonathan Aydelott (the officer who

conducted the stop), and a witness for the defense (an investigator with the Federal Public

Defender’s Office) testified to the following. On June 15, 2019, the Keg County Cowboys, a

motorcycle group, held a poker run for charity that included several stops along the run at which

volunteers worked. Lesa Lane, an employee at the Tennessee Department of Transportation

(TDOT) who Aydelott had known for several years through his work as a police officer, was

working at the Duck River Market stop. The Duck River Market “stays fairly busy” and is in a

rural area. Sergeant Aydelott, an employee of the Hickman County Sheriff’s Office who was

working as a road deputy that day, received a phone call from Bobby Dunn, a reserve deputy with

the Sheriff’s Office. A reserve deputy is an individual “who would come in and ride with patrol

officers” but did not answer calls alone. Aydelott testified that Dunn told him Lane called from

the market to report “a suspicious vehicle in the area that had been around for approximately

45 minutes to an hour,” and that Aydelott advised Dunn that Lane needed to call the central

dispatch.

Aydelott testified that his police report reflects what Dunn told him at the time, and that he

wrote the police report the next day after he spoke with Lane. The police report says, “Dunn stated,

Lane called him and told him she was at the Duck River Market in Shady Grove when she observed

a white male and a [B]lack male in a white Jeep continuously drive around in the area of the

market,” but does not specify an amount of time. It further says, “Lane then informed Dunn she

observed the [B]lack male passenger remove a long barrel gun from the back seat into the front

passenger seat.”

-2- No. 21-5297, United States v. Jackson

Aydelott was driving toward Duck River Market when dispatch radioed that “they received

a complaint or a call about a suspicious vehicle in the area and a couple [of] subjects acting

suspicious[ly].” Aydelott testified that dispatch told him there was a “white Jeep with a white

driver and [B]lack male passenger circling around the business and going up and down the road

with a rifle.” Sergeant Aydelott’s report says only that dispatch advised “they just received a call

from Lane stating there was a white male driving a white Jeep with [B]lack male passenger in the

area of the market and they had a rifle in the vehicle.”1 Based on what Dunn and dispatch told

him, the Sergeant concluded that the individuals in the vehicle were about to rob the market.

When Aydelott arrived at the store approximately two minutes later, he saw the Jeep parked

to the side of the building and observed a Black male get into the passenger door of a white Jeep

with a white male driver. Aydelott stated that he made eye contact with the passenger as he was

getting into the Jeep, but did not see a firearm at that time. The Jeep then drove off toward the

highway, and Aydelott proceeded to follow the Jeep and turn on his flashing lights. He claims that

the Jeep took off “at an elevated” speed, but that it was not “extremely fast.” The Jeep did not stop

immediately on the highway, but instead it drove a quarter of a mile, turned onto a dirt road, and

eventually stopped, traveling about 10 to 12 miles per hour on the dirt road. Before the Jeep

stopped, the passenger jumped out of the front passenger door. Aydelott estimates that the Jeep

continued for about 20 to 25 feet before it stopped. He did not pursue the passenger.

When Aydelott approached the Jeep, he asked Jackson why he did not stop the vehicle as

soon as the police lights were activated. Jackson responded that he did not see the lights until after

he turned off the highway, and his passenger, Webster, told him to keep going because he had a

gun.

1 Aydelott admitted that he doesn’t recall if he was told that the suspects had been circling the market for 45 minutes.

-3- No. 21-5297, United States v. Jackson

The court ruled on the motion to suppress from the bench. Although it was a “close case,”

the court held that Sergeant Aydelott had “reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot

under the totality of the circumstances.”

B. Trial Evidence

The issue at trial was whether Jackson possessed the rifle, so the record was developed

more than at the pretrial suppression hearing. It included that Lane works with TDOT, and she

testified as follows. When she arrived at the Duck River Market that morning, there was a white

Jeep parked to her left with a driver and passenger sitting in the front seats; the passenger got out

of the car and approached her car door. Even though she refused to acknowledge him, he stood

there for a minute and then walked into the store and came back out and sat in the Jeep. Lane then

moved her car to another location. The Jeep later moved to an area near Lane’s vehicle, and she

saw the passenger physically bring a barreled gun from the back seat to the front seat. Lane said

she never saw the driver of the Jeep holding the rifle, nor did she ever see the driver leave the Jeep.

Lane went into the store to report the Jeep’s activity and subsequently saw the Jeep several more

times as it kept going around the store for 40 to 45 minutes. Lane called her friend Sherri Dunn

and asked Sherry to tell her husband, Bobby Dunn, a reserve deputy, what she saw. Then, Lane

called dispatch.

Although Lane does not remember speaking to Bobby Dunn (and thinks she did not speak

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