United States v. Holt

229 F.3d 931, 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 4994, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 21430, 2000 WL 1206754
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedAugust 24, 2000
Docket99-7150
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 229 F.3d 931 (United States v. Holt) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Holt, 229 F.3d 931, 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 4994, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 21430, 2000 WL 1206754 (10th Cir. 2000).

Opinions

BRISCOE, Circuit Judge.

In this interlocutory appeal, the United States challenges the district court’s orders granting defendant Dennis Holt’s motions to suppress evidence obtained during a search of his vehicle incident to a traffic stop and a search of his residence shortly after the vehicle search. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 3731. Although we agree with the district court that Holt’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when he was questioned about the presence of weapons in his vehicle, we reverse with directions to the district court to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine whether Holt’s consent to search his vehicle was nevertheless voluntary.

I.

On the evening of September 15, 1999, officers from the Muldrow, Oklahoma police department, accompanied by Damon Tucker, an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer, established a checkpoint on Treat Road within the city limits of Muldrow. The impetus for establishing the checkpoint was the officers’ suspicion that Holt, who lived in the area, was transporting illegal drugs along Treat Road.1

At the checkpoint, the officers stopped all vehicles traveling along Treat Road and checked drivers’ licenses. At approximately 10:30 p.m., Tucker observed a Ford Ranger truck approach the checkpoint. Tucker noted that the driver of the truck, defendant Holt, was not wearing a seat-belt. After asking to see Holt’s driver’s license, Tucker asked Holt why he was not wearing a seatbelt. Holt stated that he lived in the area and pointed toward his house. At some point thereafter, officers from the Muldrow police department informed Tucker that Holt was the person they were seeking. Tucker asked Holt to pull over to the side of the road and join Tucker in his patrol car.

After Holt got into the patrol car, Tucker asked for Holt’s driver’s license and proceeded to write a warning for the seat-belt violation. While doing so, Tucker asked Holt if “there was anything in [Holt’s] vehicle [Tucker] should know about such as loaded weapons.” App. at 40. According to Tucker, he asks that question “on a lot of [his] stops.” Id. Holt stated there was a loaded pistol behind the passenger seat of his vehicle. Holt did not indicate whether he had a permit to carry a loaded gun (which was required under Oklahoma law), and Tucker did not ask whether Holt possessed such a permit. Tucker asked Holt if “there was anything else that [Tucker] should know about in the vehicle.” Id. at 42. Holt stated, “I know what you are referring to” but “I don’t use them anymore.” Id. Upon further questioning by Tucker, Holt indicated that he had previously used drugs, but “hadn’t been involved with them in about a year or so.” Id. at 43. Tucker then asked Holt for consent to search his vehicle. Holt agreed. It is unclear from the record whether Tucker issued the warning to Holt for the seatbelt violation at that point, or if Tucker ever returned Holt’s driver’s license to him. It is undisputed that Tucker had Holt’s driver’s license in his possession during the above-outlined questioning. According to Tucker, approximately three to four minutes elapsed between the time he and Holt got into the patrol car and the [934]*934time that Holt consented to the search of his vehicle.

Tucker and Holt got out of the patrol car and Tucker again asked Holt if there was anything else in the vehicle. Holt responded that the gun was all that Tucker would find. Tucker proceeded to search the cab of the truck and, as described by Holt, found a loaded pistol behind the passenger seat. One of the Mul-drow police officers, when informed by Tucker that Holt had given consent to have his vehicle searched, began looking through a camper shell on the back of the truck. During the course of his search, this officer found a small bag containing spoons, syringes, loose matches, and a white powdery substance in separate bags. Based upon the discovery of this evidence, Tucker arrested Holt and transported him to the Muldrow jail.

Shortly after Holt’s arrest, Tucker contacted an assistant district attorney for Sequoyah County regarding the possibility of obtaining a search warrant for Holt’s residence based upon the evidence recovered from Holt’s vehicle. The assistant district attorney concluded the evidence was not sufficient to support a search warrant for Holt’s residence. He did, however, advise Tucker to utilize “a knock and talk” technique. Id. at 48. In accordance with this advice, police officers went to Holt’s residence and Holt’s mother gave verbal consent to search the premises. During the search, officers found chemical glassware in a room where Hall stayed, as well as drugs and various drug-making equipment in an outbuilding.

Holt was indicted in federal court on October 14, 1999, on two counts of possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a), one count of manufacturing methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a), and one count of possession of a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking offense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Holt moved to suppress the evidence seized from his vehicle. The district court held an evidentiary hearing on the motion and both Tucker and Holt testified. The district court subsequently issued a written order granting the motion to suppress. Shortly thereafter, Holt filed a supplemental motion to suppress the evidence seized from his residence. That motion was granted by the district court pursuant to the government’s concession.

II.

In reviewing a district court order granting a motion to suppress, we accept the district court’s factual findings unless clearly erroneous, and we view the evidence in the light most favorable to those findings. United States v. Little, 60 F.3d 708, 712 (10th Cir.1995). We review de novo the ultimate determination of Fourth Amendment reasonableness. Id.

The Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures. See U.S. Const, amend. IV. “A traffic stop is a ‘seizure’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, ‘even though the purpose of the stop is limited and the resulting detention quite brief.’ ” United States v. Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d 1345, 1348 (10th Cir.1998) (quoting Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 653, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979)). Because a routine traffic stop is more analogous to an investigative detention than a custodial arrest, such stops are analyzed under the standards announced for investigative detentions in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). See Hunnicutt, 135 F.3d at 1348. “To determine the reasonableness of an investigative detention, we make a dual inquiry, asking first ‘whether the officer’s action was justified at its inception,’ and second ‘whether it was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.’ ” Id. (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 20, 88 S.Ct. 1868).

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Bluebook (online)
229 F.3d 931, 2000 Colo. J. C.A.R. 4994, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 21430, 2000 WL 1206754, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-holt-ca10-2000.