United States v. Antwoin Harbison

523 F. App'x 569
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 10, 2013
Docket12-11836
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 523 F. App'x 569 (United States v. Antwoin Harbison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Antwoin Harbison, 523 F. App'x 569 (11th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Antwoin Harbison appeals his conviction and 180-month sentence. After a three-day trial, Harbison was found guilty of conspiring to lease, rent, use, and maintain a residence for the purpose of manufacturing, distributing, and using crack cocaine and cocaine hydrochloride in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 856(a)(1) and 846, conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and possession with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). On appeal, Har-bison contends that the original search warrant issued violated the Fourth Amendment’s particularity requirement and that the denial of his motion for mistrial based upon an alleged violation of Rule 16(a)(1)(A) constitutes reversible error. Harbison also challenges the imposition of four sentencing enhancements, namely: (1) U.S.S.G. § 201.1(b)(1), for possession of a firearm; (2) § 2Dl.l(b)(12), for maintaining a premises for the purpose of manufacturing drugs; (3) § 3Bl.l(c), for assuming a leadership role in respect to his offenses; and (4) §§ 2Dl.l(e)(l) and 3Al.l(b)(l), for committing a sexual offense against, and distributing crack cocaine to, a vulnerable victim. For the following reasons, we affirm on all accounts.

I.

A. Constitutionality of Search Warrant

We first consider whether the search warrants issued for Harbisoris residence were sufficiently particular under the Fourth Amendment despite inclusion of an erroneous street address. Prior to trial, Harbison unsuccessfully moved to suppress the evidence seized during the search as well as any fruit derived from execution of the search warrants. 1 We review a “district court’s denial of a defendant’s motion to suppress under a mixed standard of review, examining the district court’s findings of fact for clear error and the district court’s application of law to those facts de novo.” United States v. King, 509 F.3d 1338, 1341 (11th Cir.2007) (per curiam).

The physical evidence introduced at trial during the Government’s case-in-chief was obtained after a search of Harbisoris mobile home located in Prattville, Alabama. 2 The search warrant described the property as “1563” while the target trailer had the number “1551” on it. Harbisoris mobile home was one of four trailers located on a lot that could only be accessed by an unpaved and unmarked dirt road off of Ala *573 bama Highway 14 in an unincorporated area of Autauga County. At the time law enforcement sought to obtain the first search warrant, surveillance had been undertaken from a wooded area surrounding the property but law enforcement had not been able to ascertain a residence number. Law enforcement obtained the address to include in the search warrant application from the Prattville City Map Book (“City Map Book”). The City Map Book identified the unpaved road leading from Highway 14 to the property the trailer sat on as “1568.”

As a result of this discrepancy, Harbison contends that the officers were left “with no way of determining the correct trailer to search.” Specifically, Harbison claims that because the City Map Book did not identify four different trailers on the property, all allegedly similar in appearance, the physical description provided in the warrant was insufficient to remedy inclusion of the erroneous street address. 3

Our decision in United States v. Burke controls. 784 F.2d 1090 (11th Cir.1986). In Burke, we explained:

A warrant’s description of the place to be searched is not required to meet technical requirements or have the specificity sought by conveyancers. The warrant need only describe the place to be searched with sufficient particularity to direct the searcher, to confine his examination to the place described, and to advise those being searched of his authority. An erroneous description of premises to be searched does not neees-sarily render a warrant invalid. The Fourth Amendment requires only that the search warrant describe the premises in such a way that the searching officer may with reasonable effort ascertain and identify the place intended.

784 F.2d at 1092 (internal quotation marks omitted) (quoting United States v. Weinstein, 762 F.2d 1522, 1582 (11th Cir.1985)) (finding search warrant’s erroneous description — southwest versus northwest corner of building — did not inválidate warrant under particularity requirement). In Burke, the search warrant at issue included the wrong street address and building number, yet contained the correct apartment number as well as a physical description of the building. 784 F.2d at 1092. The Burke panel held that the search warrant described the premises to be searched with sufficient particularity given 1) the detailed physical description within the warrant; and 2) because the officer who had visited the premises with the confidential informant prior to seeking the warrant pointed out the exact location to the officer tasked with executing the warrant. Id. at 1092-1093. Under these circumstances, the warrant was sufficiently particular “to direct the officers to the correct apartment, to confine the officers’ examination to that apartment, and to place the occupants on sufficient notice of the officers’ authority to search the premises.” 4 Id., 784 F.2d at 1093.

Like Burke, the physical description of the target residence, as well as law enforcement’s familiarity with the property *574 based on surveillance, puts to rest Harbi-son’s contention that the officers did not have sufficiently particular information. Here, prior to execution of the original search warrant, Narcotics Investigators Mark Harrell and Clint Lee briefed the Prattville Police Department’s SWAT Team, whose members were tasked with executing the warrant. Harrell and Lee had participated in all phases of the investigation, including the surveillance, and were familiar with the target trailer. Harrell and Lee even drove the SWAT Team to 1563 Highway 14 West and directed SWAT where to go. As Harbison’s appellate counsel conceded during argument, the search warrant in this case is properly upheld as sufficiently particular.

B. Motion For Mistrial

We next consider whether Harbi-son’s motion for mistrial pursuant to an alleged violation of Fed.R.Crim.P. 16(a)(1)(A) was properly denied by the district court.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
523 F. App'x 569, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-antwoin-harbison-ca11-2013.