United States v. Donald Lee Reeves

647 F. App'x 942
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedApril 11, 2016
Docket15-11784
StatusUnpublished

This text of 647 F. App'x 942 (United States v. Donald Lee Reeves) 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. Donald Lee Reeves, 647 F. App'x 942 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Donald Lee Reaves appeals his conviction and sentence after a jury found him guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). He raises two issues on appeal: whether .the district court (1) erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence because the search warrant was not supported by probable cause and (2) violated his constitutional rights by enhancing his sentence based on prior convictions that had not been alleged in the indictment or found beyond a reasonable doubt by a *944 jury. Upon review of the record and consideration of the parties’ briefs, we affirm.

I.

In June 2013, Officer Nakia Garrett went to 1480 Old Shocco Road, Apartment 9 in Talladega, Alabama to serve an arrest warrant on Kimberly Kelly, Garrett had visited the apartment six months earlier to investigate a stolen vehicle and remembered Kelly being present at that apartment, although she had told him that the apartment belonged to Reaves.

After Garrett knocked on the door and identified himself as a police officer, Reaves allowed Garrett to enter the apartment. Reaves told Garrett that he did not know Kelly, Garrett asked for Reaves’s identification to know with whom he was speaking. When he ran Reaves’s license through dispatch, Garrett learned that Reaves had an outstanding warrant for failure to pay child support. Garrett then placed Reaves under arrest and handcuffed him.

While waiting for transport officers to arrive, Garrett asked Reaves if he needed anything from the apartment before being taken to jail. Reaves told Garrett that he needed his wallet and tried to reach under a table to retrieve it. Garrett stopped Reaves and reached for the wallet himself. Garret then saw a pistol sitting next to the wallet. Garrett unloaded the pistol and placed it and the bullets on a table. As they were leaving the apartment, Garrett locked the front door at Reaves’s request. After he locked the door, Garrett received a phone call from another officer informing him that Reaves was a convicted felon. Because Garrett had already locked the door by the time he learned of Reaves’s criminal history,' the officers decided to obtain a warrant before reentering the apartment.

After speaking to Garrett, a federal agent, Luke Iverson, prepared an affidavit and applied for a federal warrant to search Reaves’s apartment. Iverson identified the evidence for which the officers would search as including “[flirearms [and] ammunition,” as well as “[r]ecords that establish the persons who have control ... over the property,”

After Iverson obtained a search warrant from a magistrate judge, he went to the apartment building and spoke to Reaves, who was sitting in the back of a patrol car. Reaves denied living in the apartment. Upon entering the apartment, Iverson saw the pistol and bullets, which he collected as evidence. Continuing to search the apartment, he found a shotgun in a bedroom, as well as mail and other documents that linked Reaves to the apartment.

Reaves was indicted for possessing a firearm as a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (Count One), and knowingly possessing a shotgun with a barrel length of less than 18 inches, which was not registered to him, in violation of 26 U.S.C. §§ 5845(a) and 5861(d) (Count Two). Reaves moved to suppress the evidence seized from the apartment. After an evi-dentiary hearing, the magistrate judge recommended that the motion be denied because the search warrant was supported by probable cause. Reaves objected to the magistrate judge’s recommendation. In relevant part, the district court overruled Reaves’s objection, concluding that the scope of the warrant was proper and based on probable cause.

At trial, the parties stipulated that, prior to the current crime, Reaves had been convicted of felony offenses. The jury convicted Reaves of the felon in possession of a firearm charge but not the knowingly possessing a shotgun with a barrel length of less than 18 inches charge.

*945 In the presentence investigation report, the probation officer calculated a base offense level of 24, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(2), and a four-level enhancement, pursuant to U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B). Because the probation officer determined that Reaves was an armed career criminal under U.S.S.G. § 4B1.4, Reaves’s base offense level became 33. Reaves received a criminal history category of VI. Based on his base offense level of 33 and criminal history category of VI, Reaves received an advisory sentencing guidelines range of 235 to 298 months’ imprisonment. Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 924(e)(1), the minimum sentence authorized was 15 years, with a maximum of life.

At sentencing, Reaves objected to the application of the armed career criminal enhancement, arguing that enhancement required the government to prove to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt that he had been convicted of previous felonies. The district court rejected this argument, explaining that our precedent precluded it. See United States v. Harris, 741 F.3d 1245, 1250 (11th Cir.2014). After applying the armed career criminal enhancement, but also a downward variance, the district court sentenced Reaves to 192 months’ imprisonment. Reaves now appeals the denial of his motion to suppress and his sentence.

II.

A.

Reaves argues that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress the evidence found in the apartment save the pistol and its ammunition because the warrant was not supported by probable cause. We disagree. The district court properly denied the motion to suppress.

We review a district court’s denial of a motion to suppress under a mixed standard, reviewing the district court’s findings of fact for clear error and the application of the law to those facts de novo. United States v. Bervaldi, 226 F.3d 1256, 1262 (11th Cir.2000). When we consider a ruling on a motion to suppress, “all facts are construed' in the light most favorable to the prevailing party below,” here, the government. Id.

“Probable cause to support a search warrant exists when the totality of the circumstances allows the conclusion that ‘there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place.’” United States v. Kapordelis, 569 F.3d 1291, 1310 (11th Cir.2009) (quoting Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983)).

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Jackson
120 F.3d 1226 (Eleventh Circuit, 1997)
United States v. Corey Martin
297 F.3d 1308 (Eleventh Circuit, 2002)
United States v. Steed
548 F.3d 961 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)
United States v. Kapordelis
569 F.3d 1291 (Eleventh Circuit, 2009)
Illinois v. Gates
462 U.S. 213 (Supreme Court, 1983)
United States v. Jason R. Bervaldi
226 F.3d 1256 (Eleventh Circuit, 2000)
United States v. Kenneth L. Harris
741 F.3d 1245 (Eleventh Circuit, 2014)
United States v. Vega-Castillo
540 F.3d 1235 (Eleventh Circuit, 2008)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
647 F. App'x 942, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-donald-lee-reeves-ca11-2016.