United States v. Luroy Jennings

280 F. App'x 836
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 3, 2008
Docket07-14177
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 280 F. App'x 836 (United States v. Luroy Jennings) 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. Luroy Jennings, 280 F. App'x 836 (11th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Luroy Jennings and Darryl John Jennings appeal their convictions and sentences for aiding and abetting the sex trafficking of a minor for financial benefit, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1591(a). The Jennings assert several issues on appeal, which we address in turn. After review, we affirm the Jennings’ convictions and sentences.

I. MOTION TO SUPPRESS

The Jennings were passengers in a car the police stopped in order to investigate whether the car’s temporary tag was expired or altered. After the occupants were ordered out of the car, the minor victim, J.B., made statements indicating the Jennings and the driver of the car, codefendant Sammy Carpenter, were holding her against her will, and, accordingly, the three men were arrested. Prior to trial, Carpenter and the Jennings filed motions to suppress physical evidence and statements arising out of the traffic stop, which the district court, following hearings, denied.

The Jennings assert the police lacked probable cause to believe the car’s tag was expired and to arrest for a car-registration violation and, accordingly, lacked the authority to conduct a full search of the vehicle. They contend the police failed to employ the least intrusive means necessary to confirm or dispel their concerns regarding the ear’s temporary tag and engaged in an illegal “fishing expedition” because they lacked reasonable articulable suspicion the occupants of the vehicle had contraband or were armed and dangerous. They assert the police engaged in a “full field-type search” of the car, where they discovered a joint in the ashtray, prior to a conversation about the joint and while the occupants were already in handcuffs. The Jennings also contend the officers’ conduct can only be explained as racially motivated, and, because the detectives commenced their investigation based on race, “the entire stop” should have been suppressed pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment.

We review a district court’s denial of a defendant’s motion to suppress under a mixed standard of review, reviewing the district court’s findings of fact for clear error and its application of law to those facts de novo. United States v. Smith, 459 F.3d 1276, 1290 (11th Cir.2006), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 127 S.Ct. 990, 166 L.Ed.2d 747 (2007). We accord great deference to district court credibility determinations, United States v. Clay, 376 F.3d 1296, 1302 (11th Cir.2004), and must accept the district court’s credibility findings “unless we are left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed,” United States v. Chirinos, 112 F.3d 1089, 1102 (11th Cir.1997) (quotations omitted).

An officer may conduct a brief investigatory stop of a vehicle “if the seizure is justified by specific articulable facts suffi *839 cient to give rise to a reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct.” United States v. Strickland, 902 F.2d 937, 940 (11th Cir.1990). The Supreme Court has held that, once a motor vehicle has been lawfully stopped for a traffic violation, a police officer may order the driver and passengers to exit the vehicle without violating the Fourth Amendment. Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 117 S.Ct. 882, 885-86, 137 L.Ed.2d 41 (1997). Following a stop for the purpose of issuing a traffic citation, the officer may lengthen the detention for further questioning, beyond that related to the initial stop, if the officer has an objectively reasonable and articulable suspicion that illegal activity has occurred or is occurring. United States v. Pruitt, 174 F.3d 1215, 1220 (11th Cir.1999).

“[W]hen the totality of the circumstances indicate that an encounter has become too intrusive to be classified as a brief seizure, the encounter is an arrest and probable cause is required.” United States v. Espinosa-Guerra, 805 F.2d 1502, 1506 (11th Cir.1986). In considering whether an investigative detention was sufficiently limited to not ripen into a full-scale, de facto arrest unsupported by probable cause, we apply four non-exclusive factors: (1) “the law enforcement purposes served by the detention,” (2) the diligence with which the officers pursue the investigation; (3) “the scope and intrusiveness of the detention,” and (4) “the duration of the detention.” United States v. Acosta, 363 F.3d 1141, 1146 (11th Cir.2004). In examining the law-enforcement purposes, “the most important consideration is whether the police detained the defendant to pursue a method of investigation that was likely to confirm or dispel them suspicions quickly, and with a minimum of interference.” Id. (quotations omitted). Regarding the scope, intensity, and duration of a detention, we held, in United States v. Gil, 204 F.3d 1347, 1350-51 (11th Cir.2000), that a detention did not ripen into a full arrest, where the stop lasted 75 minutes and Gil was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car while officers searched her house because there was not a female officer present to search Gil, a woman, and the officers did not know if she was armed.

Regarding searches, the “search incident to a lawful arrest is a traditional exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment.” United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 94 S.Ct. 467, 471, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973). Likewise, a warrantless inventory search permits a thorough search of property lawfully in police custody, as long as that search is consistent with the police caretaking function. United States v. O’Bryant, 775 F.2d 1528, 1534 (11th Cir.1985).

As an initial matter, the district court appears to have orally denied the Jennings’ motion to suppress based on their failure to demonstrate racial profiling and them lack of standing to challenge the admission of certain items because they failed to establish an “ownership interest” in the items. It does not appear the district court explicitly addressed the Jennings’ Fourth Amendment challenge to the initial stop and detention.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
280 F. App'x 836, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-luroy-jennings-ca11-2008.