United States v. Conrad

923 F. Supp. 2d 843, 2013 WL 546373, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19145
CourtDistrict Court, D. West Virginia
DecidedFebruary 13, 2013
DocketCase No. 1:11CR00042
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 923 F. Supp. 2d 843 (United States v. Conrad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Conrad, 923 F. Supp. 2d 843, 2013 WL 546373, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19145 (wvad 2013).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JAMES P. JONES, District Judge.

In this criminal case, the defendant, charged with firearms offenses, has moved to suppress certain evidence seized by local police pursuant to a search warrant on the ground that the items seized exceeded the scope of the warrant. In addition, she has moved to dismiss the charges on the ground that they violate her rights under the Second Amendment. Following an evidentiary hearing, I will deny the motions for the reasons that follow.

I

The defendant, Lynn Spencer Conrad, has been charged by indictment with possessing firearms while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance, 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(g)(3) (West 2000) (Count Two), disposing of firearms to a prohibited person, 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(d) (West 2000) (Count Three), and making a false statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm, 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(a)(6) (West 2000) (Count Four).1 Part of the government’s evidence against her consists of firearms described in the Indictment. These firearms were seized by local law enforcement officers during execution of a search warrant. One of the firearms was seized from her home and the others were seized from a pickup truck parked nearby.

In her first motion, the defendant argues that evidence of these seized firearms should be suppressed as violative of. her Fourth Amendment rights. She contends that the officers who conducted the search exceeded the scope of their warrant in that firearms were not identified in the warrant as items to be searched for and that the pickup truck was not parked on the property described in the warrant.

A joint hearing was conducted on the motions,' at which the court heard testimony from officers who conducted the search as well as the defendant and a neighbor. From the evidence presented at the hearing, I find the following facts:

1. On September 10, 2008, investigators from the Wythe County, Virginia, Sheriffs Office executed a search warrant at the home of the defendant and her husband, Samuel Robert Conrad III, located in a rural area of Wythe County. Mr. Conrad had been arrested the previous day in connection with the homicide of his sister-in-láw, Iris Gregory. The warrant, issued by a state magistrate, authorized the officers to search the “house, curtilage, outbuildings and any vehicles” at the Conrads’ address for “any blood, hair, tissue or other biological fluids,” as well as “any burned clothing and cloth towels”;
2. At the time the officers searched the Conrads’ home, they did not yet know how Iris Gregory had been murdered because of the condition of her body;
3. At the same time, the officers were aware that Mr. Conrad had been arrested in 2005 and charged in this court with possessing firearms while being a convicted felon. A number of firearms had been seized from the property at that time. The officers were also aware that Mr. Conrad had been acquitted of those charges by reason of insanity. They were [846]*846aware that the court had ordered that the seized firearms be returned to the Conrad family, with the condition that Mr. Conrad was not to possess firearms or reside in a home in which, firearms were present. The officers were also aware that the court had instructed Mrs. Conrad not to give firearms to Mr. Conrad or to keep firearms at the home;
4. In the course of conducting the search, officers discovered a smoking device that contained methamphetamine residue on a couch in the home near to where Mrs. Conrad had been sitting. They also discovered a narcotic pill on her person. Eli Conrad (“Eli”), the defendant’s juvenile son who was also a resident of the home, was found to be in possession of marijuana;
5. In the course of their search of the home, officers discovered a firearm on the defendant’s bed, a Ruger Mini-14.223 caliber rifle, which they seized and which is one of the firearms described in the Indictment in this case;
6. While executing the warrant, offi- . cers also searched a blue Ford pickup truck. This truck had been purchased by Mr. Conrad and his niece Emily Gregory. It was primarily used by Eli and the Conrads’ neighbor, Eddie Edwards, for hauling firewood. The keys were alwáys left in the truck and its doors were kept unlocked. At the time of the search, 'the truck was parked about thirty feet from the rear of the Conrad’s house on the opposite side of a dilapidated wire fence. There was a large gap in the fence between the truck and the house. There was a driveway on that side of the fence that was used to pull the truck off the highway. This driveway provided more convenient access to the Conrads’ home than their regular driveway, which was very steep. Other than the Conrad home, the nearest home to the truck was about a quarter of a mile away where Eddie Edwards lived. While the officers did not know it, the fence marked the Conrad’s property line so that at the time of the search, the truck was actually parked on Edwards’ property;
7. While searching the truck, an officer discovered and seized two rifles, a Stevens Model 73, .22 caliber, and a Marlin Model 783, .22 caliber, also described in the Indictment in this case;
8. An officer present who also had participated in Mr. Conrad’s 2005 arrest recognized two of the seized rifles to be the same guns police had seized in 2005 and that the court had instructed the defendant to remove from the property; and
9. The firearms the officers seized from the truck were kept there in • order to .allow the Conrads’ neighbors to easily access them. All of these neighbors had access to the interior of the truck and the firearms.

A

The defendant contends that the officers exceeded the scope of their warrant by searching the interior of the truck. The search warrant permitted the officers to search the house, curtilage, vehicles and outbuildings located at the Conrads’ address. The warrant did not authorize a search of any other property. The truck, parked on a neighbor’s property at the time of the search was, therefore, not within the scope of the permitted search. Moreover, Mrs. Conrad asserts that she [847]*847had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the truck such that her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures was violated when the police searched the truck without a proper warrant.

“[T]he application of the Fourth Amendment depends on whether the person invoking its protection can claim a ‘justifiable,’ a ‘reasonable,’ or a ‘legitimate expectation of privacy’ that has been invaded by government action.” Smith v. Maryland, 442 U.S. 735, 740, 99 S.Ct. 2577, 61 L.Ed.2d 220 (1979). The Supreme Court has found this inquiry to incorporate two discrete questions. First, the court must consider whether the individual has exhibited a subjective expectation of privacy — that is, whether the “individual has shown that ‘he seeks to preserve [something] as private.’ ” Id. (quoting Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 351, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967)). Second, the court must consider whether the individual’s subjective expectation of privacy, when “viewed objectively, is ‘justifiable’ under the circumstances.” Smith, 442 U.S.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
923 F. Supp. 2d 843, 2013 WL 546373, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-conrad-wvad-2013.