United States v. Daniel McIntosh

857 F.2d 466, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 12696, 1988 WL 94420
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 15, 1988
Docket87-2611EM
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 857 F.2d 466 (United States v. Daniel McIntosh) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth 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. Daniel McIntosh, 857 F.2d 466, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 12696, 1988 WL 94420 (8th Cir. 1988).

Opinion

WOLLE, District Judge.

Daniel McIntosh was tried, convicted, and sentenced on the charge of felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). At the conclusion of the jury-waived trial, the District Court 1 ruled that St. Louis police officers had not violated McIntosh’s Fourth Amendment rights when, without consent or exigent circumstances, they entered his temporary residence and seized a handgun they discovered while searching for a person who did not reside there. The officers had no search warrant but were in the process of executing an arrest warrant for one Ricky Durham, who did not live in the home. Questions presented on this appeal are whether McIntosh had standing to assert Fourth Amendment rights, whether the officers' entry and search were with consent, and whether the arrest warrant for a third person gave officers authority to enter McIntosh’s temporary residence and seize his handgun found there. We agree with McIntosh that he had standing, entry was without consent, and a search warrant was required. We therefore reverse and remand.

Although the issues here presented are largely fact-bound, there is little disagreement concerning the incident that gave rise to the seizure of McIntosh’s weapon. The relevant evidence was developed first at a suppression hearing and thereafter at trial. At 8:00 a.m. on July 8, 1987, St. Louis *467 police officers learned from the FBI that they might be able to execute an outstanding arrest warrant for one Ricky Durham who was wanted for first degree murder. Durham was reported to be at the home of Larry Shurn, a convicted felon and acquaintance of Durham. The house was owned by Shurn’s mother. It turned out, however, that Durham was not at the home, but McIntosh was there as an overnight guest of Shurn. McIntosh had been staying at the home for the past three or four days.

At 9:30 a.m. that morning six police officers went to the Shurn residence. While two officers waited at the rear door, four officers, with weapons drawn, went to the front entrance, knocked on the door, and announced their presence. A person within the home, one Willie Greer, opened the door, and two officers stepped inside and asked Durham’s whereabouts. Greer responded truthfully that no one was there but “me and my friend,” the friend being McIntosh. One officer immediately approached McIntosh and asked him to “get up.” McIntosh raised up from his position on a couch, and the officer was then able to observe in plain view a .25 caliber automatic pistol on the cushions where McIntosh had been reclining. The officer seized the gun, asked McIntosh to identify himself, and soon recognized him as a convicted felon. The officers placed McIntosh under arrest on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a firearm. The officers did not find Durham during the protective sweep search of the residence that followed.

Before trial a United States Magistrate 2 found that McIntosh had standing to raise the Fourth Amendment issue, because he had a legitimate expectation of privacy within the Shurn home while staying there as an overnight guest. Without deciding the question of consent for the search, the magistrate denied McIntosh’s motion to suppress the weapon on the theory that once the police officers were legitimately within the residence to arrest Durham, they had the right to perform a protective sweep search of the house and seize the weapon discovered in plain view on the couch beneath McIntosh.

The district court, upon review of the magistrate’s report and recommendation and consideration of trial testimony, concluded that McIntosh’s handgun had been properly received in evidence. The court found that McIntosh had standing, based on his legitimate expectation of privacy within the Shurns’ residence while staying there for several nights. The court found the officers had not received consent to enter and search the house. But the court concluded, as had the magistrate, that the arrest warrant for Durham gave the officers authority to enter the dwelling to search for Durham and thereafter to seize McIntosh’s weapon seen in plain view, notwithstanding their failure to obtain a search warrant.

I. The question of standing gives us little pause. The district court correctly found from the evidence that McIntosh had been residing at this dwelling as the Shurns’ guest for several days and had a legitimate expectation of privacy within the residence. Perhaps Durham, a nonresident, would have lacked standing to challenge this entry and search, but on the facts here the resident McIntosh did have standing to assert his Fourth Amendment rights. United States v. Perez, 700 F.2d 1232, 1236 (8th Cir.1983); see Rakas v. Illinois, 439 U.S. 128, 143, 99 S.Ct. 421, 430, 58 L.Ed.2d 387 (1978) (articulating as test for standing whether person has “legitimate expectation of privacy” in area which is subject of search and seizure).

II. Neither is there merit in the government’s contention that the officers had received consent to enter and search the house. Greer opened the front door for the officers because they had weapons drawn when they demanded entry. The burden was on the government to prove that consent to search was “freely and voluntarily given.” Bumper v. North Carolina, 391 U.S. 543, 548, 88 S.Ct. 1788, 1792, 20 L.Ed.2d 797 (1968). The totality of the *468 circumstances permits no other conclusion than that the entry and search were not consensual. See Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 227, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2047, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973).

III. We turn to the central issue presented by the parties—whether the officers’ entry into the residence and seizure of McIntosh’s handgun exceeded the authority provided by the warrant for Durham’s arrest. Controlling decisions of the United States Supreme Court construing the Fourth Amendment plainly deny the officers that authority. We emphasize that the government concedes the absence here of exigent circumstances.

In Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), the Court held that in the absence of exigent circumstances officers may not enter a home to conduct a search or make an arrest unless they have first obtained a search warrant. Id. at 590, 100 S.Ct. at 1382. The Court in dictum suggested, however, that no search warrant would be required if the officers had an arrest warrant and were attempting to arrest the subject of the warrant in the person’s own residence. Id. at 602-03, 100 S.Ct. at 1388-89. Here, of course, the arrest warrant was for Durham, a nonresident, not McIntosh who was living in the house.

Payton principles were refined in Steagald v. United States,

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Bluebook (online)
857 F.2d 466, 1988 U.S. App. LEXIS 12696, 1988 WL 94420, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-daniel-mcintosh-ca8-1988.