United States v. Johnnie Davis

109 F.4th 1320
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJuly 30, 2024
Docket23-10184
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 109 F.4th 1320 (United States v. Johnnie Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Johnnie Davis, 109 F.4th 1320 (11th Cir. 2024).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 23-10184 Document: 47-1 Date Filed: 07/30/2024 Page: 1 of 40

[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 23-10184 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus JOHNNIE LEEANOZG DAVIS,

Defendant- Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Alabama D.C. Docket No. 2:21-cr-00101-MHT-JTA-1 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 23-10184 Document: 47-1 Date Filed: 07/30/2024 Page: 2 of 40

2 Opinion of the Court 23-10184

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and JORDAN and BRASHER, Cir- cuit Judges. BRASHER, Circuit Judge: The main question in this appeal is an issue of first impres- sion about Fourth Amendment standing to challenge a geofence warrant. Johnnie Davis was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 2119 of committing a string of carjackings in the Montgomery, Alabama, area. Before trial, Davis moved to suppress two pieces of evidence (1) the location of his girlfriend’s phone that the police obtained from Google through a geofence warrant and (2) inculpatory state- ments Davis made after being arrested on state charges. At trial, Davis moved for a judgment of acquittal on the grounds that the government failed to prove his intent to cause death or serious harm to his victims. The district court denied these motions. Davis raises the same three arguments on appeal. He argues that the geofence warrant that led the police to identify his girl- friend’s phone did not adequately define the places and things to be searched. He argues that he should have been presented to a United States magistrate judge before being interviewed, even though he was in state custody. And he argues that his use of a gun to commit the carjackings was insufficient to establish the intent element of the crime. We reject these arguments. We agree with the district court that Davis lacks Fourth Amendment standing to challenge the geofence warrant because the search did not disclose any infor- mation about the data on his own electronic device, reflected only USCA11 Case: 23-10184 Document: 47-1 Date Filed: 07/30/2024 Page: 3 of 40

23-10184 Opinion of the Court 3

his limited movements in public areas, and did not encompass his home. Because we cannot say the district court clearly erred in find- ing that federal law enforcement did not improperly collude with state law enforcement in arresting and interviewing Davis, we like- wise agree with the district court that the federal presentment re- quirements set out in Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 5(a) and 18 U.S.C. § 3501(c) did not apply when Davis was in state custody. Finally, we agree with the district court that Davis’s use of a gun during the carjackings sufficiently established Davis’s intent to cause death or serious harm. Accordingly, we affirm. I.

The Montgomery Police Department began investigating a string of carjackings and robberies that occurred between 2014 and 2017 in the Montgomery, Alabama, area. In 2017, the MPD sought assistance from the FBI to seek warrants for cell tower location in- formation to further the investigation. Nathan Faggert, who served as a Sergeant with the MPD and as a task force officer with the FBI, initiated an FBI investigation into thirty-five incidents he believed were committed by the same suspect. Faggert worked the investi- gation in a dual capacity, and the MPD and the FBI collaborated through him and another MPD detective. Faggert regularly up- dated his supervisors at the MPD and the FBI about the progress of the investigation and how the FBI could best support the MPD— the FBI primarily focused on digital information gathering while USCA11 Case: 23-10184 Document: 47-1 Date Filed: 07/30/2024 Page: 4 of 40

4 Opinion of the Court 23-10184

the MPD responded to robberies, interviewed witnesses, and de- veloped leads. During the ongoing investigation, four more robberies and three more carjackings occurred on January 23, 2020, October 30, 2020, and November 11, 2020. Law enforcement suspected that the same person responsible for the crimes under investigation also committed the three new offenses. The carjacking and robbery on January 23, 2020, involved a masked man who approached a vehicle, gestured toward a gun in his waistband, and demanded the vehicle, telling the driver not to move and that he wanted her car. The victim testified that she be- lieved the robber would have shot her had she not complied. Later that night, a masked man used the stolen car to rob a gas station in the area. The MPD obtained video surveillance of the area where the suspect dumped the stolen vehicle, and the video showed the suspect get into another car to make his escape. The getaway vehi- cle’s license plate was registered to Stacey Gilbert, the sister of Da- vis’s girlfriend, Portia Gilbert. Faggert prepared and presented a geofence warrant to Google, seeking information on Google devices and accounts lo- cated within forty to one hundred meters of six locations on Janu- ary 23 and 24, around the time of the carjacking and robbery oc- curred. The times and locations corresponded with video surveil- lance that captured the suspect in action. Google responded to the warrant by providing an anony- mized list of devices and accounts that connected to its services at USCA11 Case: 23-10184 Document: 47-1 Date Filed: 07/30/2024 Page: 5 of 40

23-10184 Opinion of the Court 5

the times and locations designated in the warrant. Faggert analyzed this data and identified three devices relevant to the investigation. Google “unmasked” those devices, i.e., disclosed the identifying in- formation, and Faggert determined that only one device appeared to be related. Specifically, Google identified a Gmail account open on a device in the getaway car as it was captured by video surveil- lance at the areas of the carjacking, business store robbery, and where the carjacked vehicle was abandoned. The device belonged to Portia Gilbert, and the Gmail account was registered to Gilbert’s daughter. Another carjacking and robbery occurred in the Montgom- ery area on October 30, 2020. A man and his fifteen-year-old son, who had pulled over to switch drivers, were approached by a masked man, who put two pistols in the son’s face and told them to run. The father later testified that the man probably would have shot his son if they had not given up the car. That same night, the stolen car was used in a robbery at a nearby Dollar General. MPD obtained video surveillance from the night of October 30 that showed a man exit a vehicle in the area of the carjacking and walk towards the scene of the carjacking. MPD obtained other video surveillance that showed the same vehicle at a gas station. MPD determined that the vehicle was rented to Davis, pulled the GPS data for the vehicle, and discovered that it was near the car- jacking on October 30. The police used the cell phone number Da- vis listed in the rental agreement to obtain a warrant that allowed police to track the phone in real time. USCA11 Case: 23-10184 Document: 47-1 Date Filed: 07/30/2024 Page: 6 of 40

6 Opinion of the Court 23-10184

A final carjacking and robbery took place on November 11, 2020. A masked man approached the victim’s vehicle, stuck a gun through the window, and told the driver, “don’t think about it.” The perpetrator stole the car, and the victim later said that he be- lieved he could have been shot. Later that night, a masked man used the car to rob a Fresh Market and a Dollar General store in the area.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
109 F.4th 1320, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-johnnie-davis-ca11-2024.