United States v. Biles

100 F. App'x 484
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 9, 2004
DocketNo. 03-5893, 03-5894
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 100 F. App'x 484 (United States v. Biles) 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. Biles, 100 F. App'x 484 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

RUSSELL, District Judge.

This is the direct appeal of Mr. Jerry Biles and his son, Mr. Troy Biles, from judgments of United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Jerry Biles pleaded guilty to three methamphetamine-related charges; Troy Biles pleaded guilty to one. Their appeal focuses on a traffic stop and voluntary search of Jerry Biles’s truck and a search pursuant to a warrant of Jerry Biles’s residence. The defendants allege that the traffic stop and search of the truck violated the Fourth Amendment and that the officers who searched Jerry Biles’s residence exceeded the scope of the warrant by also searching a Quonset hut (known as “the shop”) next to his home. Troy Biles also appeals the district court’s attribution of 5.1 grams of finished methamphetamine to the conspiracy to which he pleaded guilty.

We affirm the judgments of the district court for the reasons given below.

I.

On April 8, 2002, Officers Marc Martin and Jackie Matheny, Jr., members of the Warren County Sheriffs Department, observed Jerry Biles leaving his home in a 1978 brown Dodge pick-up truck. The truck had a fixed camper top with opaque, or heavily-tinted, windows. Officer Martin stopped Jerry Biles after he noticed that one of the truck’s brake lights was out and discovered, via radio, that the license plate on the truck was not issued for that truck.

After Jerry Biles got out of his truck. Officer Martin asked him about the broken brake light and the illegal license plate. Biles indicated that the brake light had worked previously and that the license plate was registered to another vehicle he owned. Officer Martin, who testified that he had previously heard information about Biles’s connection to illegal drug activity, then asked Jerry Biles if there were any weapons or drugs in the truck. Biles denied that there were: Officer Martin then asked for consent to search the truck. Biles both gave oral consent to search the truck and signed a written consent form.

When the officers searched the vehicle they discovered four opaque garbage bags loaded in the truck bed. These bags had odors similar to those in methamphetamine laboratories. The officers asked [487]*487Jerry Biles where the bags came from and he replied that they had come from his residence on Friendship Drive. The officers opened the bags, found the remnants of a methamphetamine lab, and arrested Biles.

Officer Martin took Jerry Biles to jail and sent other officers to Biles’s residence to secure it and wait for a search warrant to issue. While at the residence, a group of officers went to the shop adjacent to Biles’s home and knocked on its door. They heard movement inside but received no response. They then entered the building, found Troy Biles hiding under a tarp. arrested him, and read him his rights.

The location of the shop is significant because — as explained below — the parties contest whether it is properly understood as a part of the Bileses’ homestead or curtilage, or is sufficiently distinct to constitute its own property. The shop sits on a parcel that is taxed separately from Jerry Biles’s home. The two buildings — the shop and the residence — are about 150 feet apart and separated about half way by a line of fencing and brush. A fence surrounds most of the shop’s lot, which holds scattered cars and other motorized vehicles in various states of disrepair. The shop has its own driveway leading onto Second Street; Biles’s house faces Friendship Drive and has its own separate driveway. There is no evidence that the Bileses used the shop for any commercial purposes except manufacturing methamphetamine. Troy Biles lived in the shop at least part of the time.

Officer Martin obtained the following warrant from the state court judge:

You are therefore hereby commanded to make immediate search on the person of said Jerry Biles and in the Premises used and occupied by him ... located in Warren County. Tennessee and more particularly described as follows:
Starting at State Hwy 70 and State Hwy 56 in McMinnville, Warren Count TN, travel east on Hwy 70 11.2 miles to the intersection of Hwy 70 and Maple Street in Rock Island TN. Turn left onto Maple Street and travel .2 miles the intersection of Maple Street and 2nd Street. Turn right onto 2nd Street and travel approximately .1 miles to the address of 206 Friendship Drive which will be at the corner of 2nd Street and Friendship Drive. This residence will be on the left-handed side of the road. The house will be a single level house with gray siding and white trim. This will be the residence of Jerry Biles.
This is the premises to be searched including all of the building, out-houses and vehicles found thereof ...

Contrary to the information contained in the warrant, Jerry Biles’s house was not on the corner of Second Street and Friendship Drive — it was one house down from that location. The warrant also stated that the house was located in Rock Island when in fact it was located in Campaign.

During the execution of the search warrant. Officer Martin and his fellow officers discovered enough evidence, including material from the shop, to sustain three counts against Jerry and Troy Biles. Those counts included conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, and possession of precursor materials with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine.1 The United States District [488]*488Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee denied motions by Jerry and Troy Biles to suppress evidence gathered during the search of the 1978 Dodge pickup and the residence and shop. The Bileses subsequently accepted plea agreements2 and were sentenced in June 2003.

At the time of his sentencing Troy Biles objected to the presentence report’s attribution to him of 5.1 grams of finished methamphetamine which, he contends, was attributable either to his father, his father’s live-in girlfriend, “or other persons engaging in consumption or distribution activities separate and apart from Troy Biles that did not further his conspiracy to manufacture with Jerry Biles.” The district court noted this objection but concluded “that it does apply and that the 5.1 grams of methamphetamine were directly attributed to [Troy Biles.]”

Both defendants filed timely notices of appeal.

II.

“In reviewing a district court’s denial of a motion to suppress evidence, this court reviews the district court’s findings of fact for clear error, and its legal conclusions de novo.” United States v. Gillis, 358 F.3d 386, 390 (6th Cir.2004). It is also well-established that “[t]his court reviews for clear error the district court’s determination of the quantity of drugs attributable to a defendant for sentencing purposes.” United States v. Dunbar, 357 F.3d 582, 597 (6th Cir.2004).

The standard of review for the district court’s curtilage determination is unsettled. Prior to the late 1990s, most circuits considered “curtilage questions [as] factual determinations” and reviewed them for clear error. Daughenbaugh v. City of Tiffin, 150 F.3d 594, 597 (6th Cir.1998) (noting accord among the Second, Third, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits). The cases cited in Daughenbaugh, however, did not consider Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690

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Bluebook (online)
100 F. App'x 484, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-biles-ca6-2004.