United States v. Hopson

134 F. App'x 781
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 20, 2004
DocketNo. 02-4387
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 134 F. App'x 781 (United States v. Hopson) 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. Hopson, 134 F. App'x 781 (6th Cir. 2004).

Opinion

ROGERS, Circuit Judge.

A pair of men robbed an employee of Sánese Services, a vending machine company, as he was servicing vending machines at Calltech Communications in Columbus, Ohio. A jury convicted Dion Hopson, the defendant-appellant, of robbery and carrying and brandishing a weapon during a crime of violence in connection with this crime, and of making a false statement to a federally licensed firearms dealer. On appeal, Hopson raises a number of claims, most notably that his confession to the robbery was admitted in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), that the district court improperly instructed the jury, and that the district court improperly applied a sentencing enhancement for a leadership role in the robbery. For the reasons discussed below, we affirm Hopson’s conviction but reverse the application of the sentencing enhancement for a leadership role in the robbery.

BACKGROUND

On June 4, 2000, Dion Hopson purchased three firearms from the Peddler’s Post, a federally licensed firearms dealer located in Wilmington, Ohio. As part of the transaction, Hopson completed ATF Form 4473, the Firearms Transaction Record, as required by federal law. He answered “no” to the question, “are you under indictment or information in any court for a crime for which a judge could imprison you for more than one year?” At the time, Hopson was under indictment in Franklin County, Ohio, for the felony crime of carrying a concealed weapon.

On November 1, 2000, Hopson was hired as a vending route driver by Sánese Services (“Sánese”), a vending machine and catering business located in Columbus, Ohio. Vending route drivers service the vending machines on their routes and collect money generated by these machines. As part of his route, Hopson serviced the vending machines at Calltech Communications (“Calltech”), located in the northwest area of Columbus. On December 12, 2000, Sánese fired Hopson for attempting to steal approximately $1,000.

On March 27, 2001, three armed, masked men robbed Sánese. The men entered the Sánese budding and proceeded to the area where money from second-shift delivery trucks — Hopson’s former shift— was kept. The largest of the men instructed the security guard to come out of his cage and unlock the gate to the room where the money was stored. Most of the robbery was captured by a security camera.

On October 8, 2001, a second-shift delivery truck was robbed as the driver was servicing the vending machines at Call-tech. Prior to the robbery, at around 5:00 p.m., when the Sánese truck usually arrived, David Lock, a Calltech employee, observed a black man sitting near the smoking tent. Lock thought this was “odd” as the man was not a Calltech employee.

At around 7:15 p.m., approximately two hours behind schedule, the Sánese truck [784]*784arrived at Calltech. The driver, Justin Edwards, noticed a “kind of tall” black man near the smoking tent. Edwards made his first trip into the Calltech building and, upon returning to his truck, noticed that the man was talking on his cell phone. After making two additional trips into the Calltech building, Edwards entered the back of his truck. Then the man who had been sitting near the smoking tent jumped up on the lift gate of the truck, flashed a gun, and took the money that was in the back of the truck. During these events, the robber’s gun accidentally fired.

Lock, who was taking another smoking break at the time, witnessed the robbery. The man whom Lock had noticed earlier fired a shot over Lock’s head and then entered the back of the Sánese truck. Immediately thereafter, a champagne-colored van pulled up next to the Sánese truck, and a black man exited. The first robber, who was in the Sánese truck, handed bags of money to the second robber, the driver of the van. At this point, Lock ran, and, during his flight, he heard a second gunshot.

On October 17, 2001, agents of the Bureau of Alcohol. Tobacco and Firearms (the “ATF”) and officers of the Columbus Police Department executed a search warrant at Hopson’s residence. The agents knocked on the front door of the residence with them weapons drawn. Hopson answered, and the agents instructed Hopson to unlock the door and step away. Hopson complied, and the agents entered the living room, instructed Hopson to lie on the floor, and then handcuffed Hopson. Hopson’s wife entered the living room, and the agents had her lie on the floor and handcuffed her as well. After the agents made sure that no one else was in the house, they moved Hopson to the kitchen, and situated his wife on the couch in the living room.

Craig Brenneman, an ATF agent, placed the ATF Form 4473 that Hopson had completed for the Peddler’s Post in front of Hopson. Brenneman then informed Hop-son that he was not under arrest. Nonetheless, he read Hopson his Miranda rights, and Hopson acknowledged that he understood his Miranda rights. Soon thereafter, the agents asked Hopson whether there was another place they could talk given the “commotion upstairs.” Hopson suggested the basement. In the basement, the agents questioned Hopson, still in handcuffs, about the Sánese robberies. According to Hopson, Brenneman informed Hopson that “it’s better off to cooperate with [Brenneman] because he has a good relationship with the prosecutor.”

Eventually, Hopson confessed to involvement in both robberies. At first, he denied any knowledge of the March 27 robbery. After further questioning, however, he admitted that he drew a map of the interior of the Sánese building for the three men who committed the robbery, and that he accepted $1,000 of the proceeds afterwards, though he claimed that he did not know about the robbery until after it happened. Likewise, he initially denied any involvement in the October 8 robbery, insisting that he was at his son’s football practice at the time of the crime. After further questioning, however, he confessed to the robbery. He stated that he had informed his accomplice when the Sánese truck would arrive and where the money would be stored, and that the pair planned to have the accomplice steal the truck itself. On the afternoon of the robbery, he dropped his accomplice off at Calltech and parked across the street. But after the Sánese truck failed to arrive on time, he decided to call off the robbery, and he drove back toward Calltech. He saw his accomplice walking back from Calltech, and he attempted to wave his [785]*785accomplice back. At this point, though, his accomplice turned around, fired a shot, and commenced the robbery. Hopson then pulled up next to the Sánese truck, transferred bags of money from the Sánese truck to his van, and fled with his accomplice.

During their search of Hopson’s residence, the agents seized a Glock 40 caliber pistol, which, according to ballistics testimony from the Government, was used in the October 8 robbery, and coins in wrappers unique to Sánese.

A grand jury returned a five-count indictment charging Hopson with felony firearms and Hobbs Act violations. Specifically, the indictment charged Hopson with the following offenses: (1) Making a False Statement to a Federally Licensed Firearm Dealer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(1)(A) in connection with Hopson’s purchase of firearms from the Peddler’s Post; (2) a Hobbs Act1 violation pursuant to 18 U.S.C.

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Bluebook (online)
134 F. App'x 781, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-hopson-ca6-2004.