United States v. Dunn

269 F. App'x 567
Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit·Decided March 17, 2008·No. 05-5815, 05-6665·Unpublished·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

SUTTON, Circuit Judge.

Jarrett and Jarrod Dunn appeal their drug-distribution convictions and sentences. As to Jarrett, the district court did not err in denying his motions to suppress, it did not plainly err in charging him with separate counts for crack-cocaine and powder-cocaine conspiracies and it imposed a reasonable sentence. As to Jarrod, the verdict did not constructively amend the indictment, and the district court properly calculated the guidelines range.

I.

State detective Duff Brumley learned that twin brothers, Jarrett and Jarrod Dunn, were selling cocaine from an apartment in Cleveland, Tennessee. He and another officer went to the apartment, located on Gibson Drive, where they saw a black Cadillac registered to James Dunn.

That afternoon Brumley sought a search warrant, in support of which he submitted an affidavit, filled out a search warrant form and attached two documents that described the items to be seized and the places to be searched. The judge signed the search warrant and the affidavit, and he placed the affidavit under seal.

While Brumley obtained the warrant, another detective conducted surveillance of the Gibson Drive premises. When the Cadillac left the apartment, the second detective alerted a patrol officer who stopped the car, which contained Jarrod Dunn, Jarrett Dunn and Rusty Dyer. Brumley soon arrived and showed the warrant and attachments to Jarrett. The officers drove the men back to the apartment and searched it, finding baggies containing 41.7 grams of cocaine base in a large jacket, baggies with white residue in the trash and items with white residue in the dishwasher that looked like they had been used to cook crack cocaine.

A federal grand jury indicted Jarrett, Jarrod and two other defendants on several drug-related counts. Count one charged all four defendants with a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base, see 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A), 846; count two charged all four defendants with a conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride, see id.; and count five charged Jarrett and Jarrod with possession with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base, see id. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(A).

Jarrett and Jarrod pleaded not guilty and were tried separately. A jury found Jarrett guilty on all three counts, and the court sentenced him to concurrent 360- *570 month sentences on each count. A jury found Jarrod guilty on counts one and five, and the court sentenced him to concurrent 145-month sentences on each count.

II.

A.

Jarrett first argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress based on a defect in the warrant. “[N]o Warrants shall issue,” the Fourth Amendment says, “but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” U.S. Const, amend. IV. The parties agree that the police needed a warrant to search the Gibson Drive apartment, see Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 586, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980); they disagree over whether the warrant “particularly described] the place to be searched.”

In support of his warrant application, Brumley prepared a six-page affidavit detailing the place to be searched and the items to be seized. He also filled out a warrant form and attached two documents to it: Attachment 1 described the items to be seized, and attachment 2 described the places to be searched. The form included several spaces to describe the items to be seized and one space to describe the place to be searched. In each of these spaces, the completed warrant form said, “see attachment 1 to search warrant,” which led the reader only to a description of the items to be seized. While the form never mentioned attachment 2 by name, that document was attached to the form, and the form also made a general reference to the affidavit, “hereby referred to for its contents,” contents that included the same description of the place to be searched as attachment 2.

Jarrett argues that, because the warrant read “see attachment 1” instead of “see attachment 2” in describing the premises to be searched, it fails. Even if we agreed with Jarrett on this point, however, the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule would defeat his argument. See United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 922, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984); United States v. Watson, 498 F.3d 429, 431 (6th Cir.2007) (noting that we may consider the Leon good-faith exception without deciding the validity of the warrant). “[T]he exclusionary rule should not be applied when the officer conducting the search acted in objectively reasonable reliance on a warrant issued by a detached and neutral magistrate that subsequently is determined to be invalid.” Massachusetts v. Sheppard, 468 U.S. 981, 987-88, 104 S.Ct. 3424, 82 L.Ed.2d 737 (1984).

The conduct of Brumley and the other officers was “objectively reasonable.” Brumley investigated the premises, obtained information from the local utilities company and checked the registration of the Cadillac in the driveway. He prepared a six-page affidavit and an attachment that thoroughly described the premises to be searched. While Brumley obtained the search warrant, another officer conducted surveillance on the described premises. When Brumley arrived, he gave the warrant form and the attachments to Jarrett and confined the search to those premises. Cf id. Under these circumstances, excluding the evidence against Jarrett would not “further the purposes of the exclusionary rule.” Leon, 468 U.S. at 918, 104 S.Ct. 3405; see also id. at 920, 104 S.Ct. 3405 (“This is particularly true ... when an officer acting with objective good faith has obtained a search warrant from a judge or magistrate and acted within its scope.”). Jarrett, notably, does not resist (or even *571 respond to) the government’s reliance on the Leon good-faith exception.

Nor, it bears adding, would suppressing the evidence further the purposes of the particularity requirement. “The chief purpose of the particularity requirement,” we have said, “was to prevent general searches by requiring a neutral judicial officer to cabin the scope of the search to those areas and items for which there exists probable cause that a crime has been committed.” Baranski v. Fifteen Unknown Agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, 452 F.3d 433, 441 (6th Cir.2006) (en banc). In this case, the judge signed both the affidavit (which included a description of the premises to be searched) and the warrant form, and he had both attachments in front of him. Cf. Groh v. Ramirez, 540 U.S. 551

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

United States v. Dunn, 269 F. App'x 567 (6th Cir. 2008).

269 F. App'x 567 (United States v. Dunn) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

McMillian 534855 v. Rewerts
W.D. Michigan, 2024
Hersie Wesson v. Tim Shoop
17 F.4th 700 (Sixth Circuit, 2021)
Dunn v. Quintana
E.D. Kentucky, 2021
United States v. Corey Lanier
623 F. App'x 768 (Sixth Circuit, 2015)
Lazelle Maxwell v. United States
617 F. App'x 470 (Sixth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Sunnah Maddox
562 F. App'x 272 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)
United States v. Darius Anderson
555 F. App'x 589 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)
United States v. Maxwell
948 F. Supp. 2d 749 (E.D. Kentucky, 2013)
United States v. David Brown
443 F. App'x 956 (Sixth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Montgomery
621 F.3d 568 (Sixth Circuit, 2010)