United States v. Harry

130 F.4th 342
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Second Circuit
DecidedMarch 7, 2025
Docket23-7106
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 130 F.4th 342 (United States v. Harry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Second 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. Harry, 130 F.4th 342 (2d Cir. 2025).

Opinion

23-7106 United States v. Harry

In the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

August Term 2024 Argued: December 2, 2024 Decided: March 7, 2025

No. 23-7106

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Appellee, v. KENSTON HARRY, Defendant-Appellant. *

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut

Before: LYNCH, LEE, AND PÉREZ, Circuit Judges.

On appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (Arterton, J.).

Defendant-Appellant Kenston Harry raises a question of first impression in this Circuit: whether the government’s warrantless use of a stationary pole camera situated outside an individual’s business for approximately 50 days qualifies as a Fourth Amendment search. Because we conclude that it does not, we hold that the district court was not required to exclude the pole-camera footage at Harry’s criminal trial for drug trafficking. Additionally, we determine that the district court properly concluded that Harry is not entitled to “safety-valve” relief under

* The Clerk of Court is respectfully directed to amend the official caption as set forth above. 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f), which provides that where specified criteria are met, a court is not required to impose any statutory minimum set forth in the Controlled Substances Act. We therefore affirm the judgment of the district court.

AFFIRMED.

CONOR M. REARDON (Patrick J. Doherty, Assistant United States Attorney, on the brief), of counsel, Assistant United States Attorney, New Haven, CT, for Vanessa Roberts Avery, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, for Appellee.

BRUCE S. HARVEY (Brandon A. Bullard, The Bullard Law Firm, Atlanta, GA, on the brief), Law Office of Bruce S. Harvey, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant-Appellant.

MYRNA PÉREZ, Circuit Judge:

This appeal chiefly concerns the admissibility of pole-camera evidence

obtained without a warrant in a criminal proceeding, which raises a novel Fourth

Amendment question in this Circuit. Defendant-Appellant Kenston Harry

appeals a judgment of conviction for possessing controlled substances with intent

to distribute and conspiracy to accomplish the same. We conclude that, in the

circumstances present here, law enforcement’s use of a stationary pole camera to

monitor the exterior of Harry’s business did not constitute a search requiring a

warrant.

2 Harry also appeals his sentence. Applying our precedent, we determine

that the district court did not err in finding that Harry had not met his burden of

showing he is entitled under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f) to “safety-valve” relief from his

ten-year mandatory minimum. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the

district court.

BACKGROUND

The events relevant to this appeal center, in the main, on the Action Audio

Store (“Action Audio”), an automotive business in Hartford, Connecticut, that

Harry owned and operated. The exterior of Action Audio and its adjoining

parking lot are situated in a “triangle” bordered by two streets. Appellant’s App’x

57–64; Gov’t’s App’x 585–87. On one side of the parking lot, there is a low fence

with railings spaced far enough apart to view the parking lot clearly through them.

Id. In addition, that fence bore, at the time of the captured pole-camera footage,

colorful signs and advertisements. Id. These signs also did not visually obstruct

the view of the premises.

Around March 2020, Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA”) agents

began investigating Harry’s co-defendant Tajh Wiley, who was the leader of the

drug-trafficking scheme. Nearly a year later, agents tracked Wiley to Action

3 Audio, where they observed him receiving boxes from a cargo van before traveling

to Harry’s residence in Bloomfield, Connecticut (“Bloomfield residence”). Later

that day, local law enforcement in Yonkers, New York, arrested Wiley after

stopping his car and finding a kilogram of cocaine. From jail, Wiley called Harry

and conveyed that the police “kn[e]w a lot” about their activities. Following

Wiley’s release from jail in Yonkers, federal investigators initiated a wiretap of

Wiley’s cell phone and captured incriminating conversations between him and

Harry, among others.

In April 2021, as part of their investigation, DEA agents affixed a video

surveillance camera to a utility pole on a lot across the street from Action Audio.

The camera was connected to the internet and fed footage to DEA investigators,

who could remotely tilt, pan, and zoom the camera. The camera recorded 24 hours

per day for approximately 50 days. Its feed captured Action Audio’s exterior, the

outdoor parking lot, and, occasionally, a slice of the interior of the business’s

garage bay whenever the garage door was raised. 1

1 For an overlapping period, the government also obtained warrants to collect real-time and historical cellular site location information (“CSLI”) from Harry’s cell phone. The CSLI collected is not at issue in this appeal.

4 In June 2021, Harry was arrested. Investigators searched Action Audio, the

Bloomfield residence, his vehicles, and his cell phone. 2 They found narcotics and

firearms in both Action Audio and the Bloomfield residence. 3 Specifically, at

Action Audio, agents uncovered more than 1.5 kilograms of marijuana, along with

a digital scale and powder residue. They also seized three loaded firearms near

the marijuana, in addition to a semi-automatic assault rifle with two loaded, large-

capacity magazines, a shotgun and corresponding boxes of ammunition, a

revolver, and other scattered ammunition. None of the firearms at Action Audio

were registered to Harry, and the assault rifle and related magazines were illegally

possessed in the state of Connecticut. At the Bloomfield residence, which Harry

shared with his brothers and cousin, agents found kilogram quantities of fentanyl,

cocaine, and marijuana. Near the narcotics, investigators also recovered a pistol

not registered to Harry, along with assorted ammunition.

I. Procedural History

The district court denied Harry’s motion to suppress the pole-camera

evidence. The government introduced 28 minutes’ worth of footage at trial, which

2 Defendant does not challenge the constitutionality of these searches. 3Harry was arrested in his Bentley, where investigators found a pistol for which he possessed a valid permit and loaded ammunition magazines.

5 showed Wiley, Harry, and another co-defendant transferring bags of what the

government adduced to be controlled substances to their vehicles. A jury

convicted Harry of possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, cocaine, and

marijuana, respectively; and of conspiracy to accomplish the same. 4

The district court sentenced Harry principally to ten years (120 months) on

the fentanyl- and cocaine-related charges, including conspiracy—the mandatory

minimum under the Controlled Substances Act, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1); id. §

846. For the possession of marijuana count, it sentenced Harry to five years (60

months), to run concurrently. In so doing, it denied Harry safety-valve relief from

his ten-year sentence. 18 U.S.C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
130 F.4th 342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-harry-ca2-2025.