United States v. Majors

448 F. Supp. 576, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18960
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Illinois
DecidedMarch 17, 1978
DocketNo. 76 CR 777
StatusPublished

This text of 448 F. Supp. 576 (United States v. Majors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Majors, 448 F. Supp. 576, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18960 (N.D. Ill. 1978).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM

LEIGHTON, District Judge.

This is a prosecution by a nine-count indictment that charges Donald Kennedy Majors with illegal possession of unregistered, unnumbered destructive devices, and with unlawfully transporting them after having been convicted of a felony. It is charged that these offenses violate the United States Code, three sections of one title and two of another.1 The devices, as described in the nine counts, were a sawed-off repeating rifle, silencer, hand grenade, and a derringer with its serial number obliterated.

Prior to trial, Majors moved to suppress evidence that was taken from him when he was arrested in a motel room in Matteson, Illinois. The motion was heard, a memorandum of the court’s findings of fact and conclusions of law was filed, and suppression of the evidence was denied. Three days before these rulings, United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), was decided by the Supreme Court. In the light of this decision, Majors has moved the court to reconsider its ruling on his motion to suppress; and in addition, contends that on the authority of Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), and United States v. Griffith, 537 F.2d 900 (7th Cir. 1976), this court should set aside its prior ruling and suppress the evidence taken from him at the time of his arrest. The motion to reconsider has been granted; and the court has reviewed the record before it in order to determine whether Chadwick applies to this case; and whether Chimel and Griffith mandate a grant of the motion to suppress as Majors insists. This reconsideration requires a restatement of the facts shown by the evidence.

I.

On June 25,1975, Majors was indicted by a federal grand jury in Des Moines, Iowa for a violation of the Dyer Act. A warrant for his arrest was issued. Attempts were made to take him into custody, without success. Two weeks later, in the company of two young women, Barbara Thompson and Rama Jo Grayson, he registered under an assumed name in the Matteson Motel, Matteson, Illinois. Among the items in his possession was an attache case to which the women had access, with his permission.

On the night of July 8, 1975, the case contained a sawed-off repeating rifle, silencer, hand grenade, and some rounds of .22 long ammunition. The two women knew the location of these items. Late that night, Majors told Grayson that the next [578]*578morning a man from Crete, Illinois was going to meet them in the motel; and he wanted her and Thompson to help him kill the man and take from him credit cards and other valuables. Grayson refused to partake in such a project. , Majors threatened her. Then, on a pretense, Grayson telephoned her mother in San Francisco, California, told her of defendant’s murder plan, and asked that she call the San Francisco office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and tell them. Her mother agreed to do so. Grayson then communicated directly with the Chicago FBI office, identified herself to the duty agent, told him where she was, and gave the information that a man with her named Don Majors was planning to commit a murder the next morning. She asked for assistance. She told the agent about the weapons defendant had in the attache case. Grayson was told to wait in the motel for an FBI agent.

A short time later, Special Agent Ernie L. Waldrup arrived at the motel. He met Rama Jo Grayson, spoke with her, and obtained a description of Majors that coincided with that which he had been given by the FBI duty agent in Chicago. Grayson told Waldrup about the contents of the attache case. She said they were a sawed-off pistol, a hand grenade which Majors “. . . had gotten . from a kid in Sacramento and . . . was live . , and quite a few rounds of .22 longs.” She told Waldrup that the attache case was at the foot of the motel room bed in which Majors was sleeping with Thompson.

At the time Waldrup spoke with Grayson, he knew that Majors was wanted for the Dyer Act violation in Des Moines, Iowa; and that a warrant was outstanding for his arrest. Waldrup had learned from FBI agents in Chicago that the man described to him was wanted, was armed and considered dangerous. Grayson had told him of Majors’ plan to commit a murder the following morning. She described the motel room she and Thompson were sharing with Majors, its lighting condition, the location of the attache case, and said that she had left the door open so that the room could be entered.

After consulting with his superiors, Waldrup and two other agents entered the room at about 1:50 a. m., awoke Majors who was in bed nude, ordered him to put on some clothes, and handcuffed him. He was asked by Waldrup about the attache case. Majors responded by pointing to the foot of the bed. At no time was he closer than five feet from the case. Waldrup seized it, opened it, and took possession of its contents. Another agent questioned Thompson. She was advised of her constitutional rights. The agent asked her if she had a purse. She said she did. She was told by one agent that she could refuse permission to search her purse. Nonetheless, she agreed to a search of it. An agent looked into the purse and saw a derringer. When asked about its owner, she said the weapon belonged to Majors who acknowledged that this was true. Thereafter, Majors was taken from the motel room in handcuffs. Waldrup took with him the attache case and its contents which the government intends to use as evidence in this prosecution, and Majors contends should be suppressed.

II.

Majors’ reliance on United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), is based on the fact that a footlocker was seized at the time of the arrest in that case and later searched by federal agents without a warrant, a search the Supreme Court said infringed the Fourth Amendment. Chadwick was decided on June 21, 1977; Majors was arrested on July 8, 1975 and his attache case was searched by federal agents without a warrant. It is now established that Chadwick is not retroactive. United States v. Montgomery, 558 F.2d 311 (5th Cir. 1977); United States v. Reda, 563 F.2d 510 (2d Cir. 1977). In United States v. Berry, 571 F.2d 2 (7th Cir. 1978), on rehearing, it was decided that Chadwick is not to be applied retroactively in this circuit. 571 F.2d at 3. Therefore, this court cannot, in the light of that decision, reconsider a ruling that predated it.

[579]*579In addition to this reliance on Chadwick, Majors argues that under Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct.

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Bluebook (online)
448 F. Supp. 576, 1978 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18960, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-majors-ilnd-1978.