United States v. Douglas

100 F. App'x 449
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 7, 2004
DocketNos. 02-6482, 02-6483
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 100 F. App'x 449 (United States v. Douglas) 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. Douglas, 100 F. App'x 449 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge.

This is a criminal appeal from judgment following a jury trial entered against Defendants Damien Douglas1 and Lorenzo Suttles involving a conspiracy to commit several armed robberies in the Eastern District of Tennessee. We AFFIRM.

I. Background

Between early March 2001 and April 2001 a group of men carried out several armed robberies in the Chattanooga, Tennessee area. On March 15, 2001, two masked men, later determined to be codefendant Corey Young and Douglas, entered the Memorial Hospital Employees Credit Union (“Hospital Credit Union”) in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Douglas kept watch at the door while Young, at gunpoint, demanded money from a teller. They made off with $3,565 in U.S. currency. They escaped in a getaway car driven by codefendant Timothy Douglas (“T.Douglas”).

[452]*452On April 2, 2001, two men, Suttles and codefendant Bryce Gilbert, entered a Taco Bell restaurant in Red Bank, Tennessee just prior to closing time. They first hid in the men’s room and then in a storage closet, where they hid for approximately foi'ty-five minutes until the restaurant lobby and drive-thru were closed. At that point they emerged from hiding. Suttles brandished a nine millimeter pistol. Gilbert bound the employees’ and manager’s hands and feet with duct tape. Suttles took the cash that the employees were counting and also money from persons of the employees, all of which totaled approximately $1,300.00. Suttles smashed the surveillance camera tape before he left the store.

On April 27, 2001, at 1:45 p.m., codefendant Dameyon Stamper, Gilbert, and Suttles entered the Allied Printers/IBEW 846 Papermill Credit Union (“Papermill Credit Union”), a federally insured credit union in Chattanooga. Suttles vaulted the swinging door into the teller area and proceeded to the back office, and the other two followed. Two women were in the back office. Suttles pointed his gun at them and ordered them to the ground. Gilbert then taped their eyes, mouths, wrists, and ankles. Stamper struck one of the victim tellers in the head with his hand until she told him where the money was hidden. After finding the money, the three men left the bank.

On September 5, 2001, the United States filed a criminal complaint against Suttles and Stamper alleging that they violated 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d) and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(ii), based on the April 27, 2001 robbery of the Papermill Credit Union. On September 7, 2001, Suttles was arrested pursuant to a federal complaint and arrest warrant relating to the Allied Printers Credit Union robbery and transported in the backseat of an FBI Task Force vehicle. While en route to the Chattanooga FBI field office, Suttles confessed to the Papermill Credit Union and Taco Bell robberies.

On October 10, 2001, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against Suttles and Stamper charging them with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1951 and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(ii) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b), based on the April 27, 2001 robbery.

On October 23, 2001, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Stamper and Suttles charging them with aiding and abetting each other, and others known to the grand jury, with violations of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d), and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b), based on the April 27, 2001 robbery of the Papermill Credit Union. Count Two charged Stamper and Suttles with using firearms in connection with that offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(ii) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b).

On December 19, 2001, the grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Suttles, Stamper, and Douglas, charging them in Count One with conspiring with T. Douglas, Gilbert, Young, and others to commit armed robberies of the Hospital Credit Union, the Papermill Credit Union, and the Taco Bell restaurant. Count Two charged Defendant Douglas and Stamper with aiding and abetting one another in the March 15, 2001 armed bank robbery of the Hospital Credit Union, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b). Count Three charged Defendant Douglas and Stamper with violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(ii) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b) in relation to the credit union robbery charged in Count Two. Count Four charged Suttles and Defendant Douglas with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1951 and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b) in relation to the April 2, 2001 Taco Bell [453]*453robbery. Count Five charged Suttles and Douglas with brandishing a firearm during the Taco Bell robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(iii) and 2(a) and (b). Count Six charged Suttles and Stamper with the armed robbery of the Papermill Credit Union in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a) and (d) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b). Lastly, Count Seven charged Stamper and Suttles with violating 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(l)(A)(ii) and 18 U.S.C. § 2(a) and (b) for the firearm offense related to the Papermill Credit Union robbery charged in Count Six.

On December 6, 2001, Suttles filed several motions, including motions to suppress evidence and statements and a motion to sever. The district court held a hearing on December 19, 2001, and denied the suppression motion on December 21, 2001. On January 17, 2002, Suttles filed a motion to dismiss Counts One, Four, Five, Six, and Seven of the superseding indictment for lack of jurisdiction. On January 18, 2002, the district court denied Suttles’s motion to suppress statements.

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Related

Douglas v. United States
543 U.S. 1109 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Suttles v. United States
543 U.S. 1106 (Supreme Court, 2005)
Meza v. United States
543 U.S. 1098 (Supreme Court, 2005)

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Bluebook (online)
100 F. App'x 449, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-douglas-ca6-2004.