United States v. Manjate

327 F. App'x 562
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 15, 2009
Docket07-1652, 07-1711
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 327 F. App'x 562 (United States v. Manjate) 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. Manjate, 327 F. App'x 562 (6th Cir. 2009).

Opinion

*565 MEMORANDUM OPINION

McKEAGUE, Circuit Judge.

Defendants Andre Manjate and Jerome Lewis were charged in a twenty-count indictment in the Western District of Michigan with drug trafficking conspiracy and related offenses. They were tried jointly on nineteen of the twenty counts in a seven-day jury trial in December 2006. The jury found defendants guilty as charged, with one exception. Defendant Lewis was found not guilty of distribution of heroin resulting in serious bodily injury. Both defendants were sentenced on March 22, 2007. Defendant Lewis was sentenced to prison for 420 months, the statutory mandatory minimum sentence for the crimes he was convicted of. Defendant Manjate was sentenced to 224 months in prison, a sentence within the applicable advisory Guidelines range. Both defendants challenge the lawfulness of their convictions and sentences on several grounds, all of which we find to be meritless. We therefore affirm.

I. Suppression Motion (Lewis)

The first claim of error relates to a pretrial suppression motion filed by defendant Lewis in relation to evidence seized by the police in a traffic stop on February 17, 2005. After an evidentiary hearing, the district court denied the motion in a twenty-page opinion. The court held the scope of the temporary detention following the traffic stop was not unreasonably extended in awaiting the arrival of a drug detection canine unit because the officer had reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot and the delay was minimal. Lewis insists the facts known to City of Wyoming Police Sergeant John McCaw did not amount to reasonable suspicion and that he was subject to an unreasonable seizure based on a mere hunch. Lewis does not dispute McCaw’s testimony that he validly pulled-over the Plymouth Breeze Lewis was driving based on an observed traffic violation. He contends, however, that after the purpose of the traffic stop had been completed, he should have been released.

We review the district court’s factual findings for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. United States v. Branch, 537 F.3d 582, 587 (6th Cir.2008). Once the purpose of a traffic stop is completed, an officer may not further detain the vehicle or its occupants unless he has made observations which, under the totality of the circumstances known to the officer, give rise to reasonable and articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. United States v. Perez, 440 F.3d 363, 370 (6th Cir.2006). While reasonable suspicion must be based on more than an “ill-defined hunch,” an officer may draw on his own experience and specialized training to draw inferences and deductions from the cumulative information available that might well elude an untrained person. Id. at 371. Any continued detention must be temporary and the investigative means used should be the least intrusive means reasonably available to verify or dispel the officer’s suspicion in a short period of time. Perez, 440 F.3d at 372.

The district court identified the following circumstances as legitimately contributing to Sergeant McCaw’s formation of reasonable suspicion:

First, Sergeant McCaw observed Lewis’ vehicle at a known drug house at an unusual time of the morning [4:20 a.m.], parked toward the rear of the driveway with its lights on, and the vehicle left a short time later....
*566 Second, during the stop, Lewis gave information to Sergeant McCaw regarding his destination that was inconsistent with common sense....
Third, Lewis stated during the stop that he was visiting his friend, Paula. While this information alone would not suggest criminal activity, given Sergeant McCaw’s prior knowledge that Paula Nice lived at and sold drugs from the residence, it served to strengthen the suspicion that Lewis had engaged in a drug transaction and that Paula Nice was still engaged in the sale of drugs.
Fourth, Sergeant McCaw observed an ‘old-fashioned’ hard-sided briefcase in the back seat of Lewis’ vehicle. Sergeant McCaw testified that the briefcase had locks on it and that he found it odd that a younger person such as Lewis [24 years old] would be carrying an older-style briefcase....
Finally, Sergeant McCaw noticed that throughout the traffic stop, Lewis was very short with his answers and avoided eye contact, indicating that he was nervous ....

Opinion Dec. 27, 2005, pp. 9-12, JA 150-53, 2005 WL 3555502.

Considering that McCaw had received substantial specialized training in narcotics trafficking and had several years’ experience in narcotics investigations, we concur in the district court’s determination that these known facts, viewed under the totality of the circumstances, were sufficient to justify the inference drawn by McCaw that Lewis may have been involved in drug trafficking.

Lewis argues that McCaw’s information regarding drug trafficking at the residence was stale (i.e., over six months old) and that every other listed circumstance could have an innocent explanation. Circumstances comprising a particularized and objective basis for reasonable suspicion need not be uncommon or especially unique. United States v. McCauley, 548 F.3d 440, 444 (6th Cir.2008). Although each particular act in a series of acts may be innocent in itself, taken together, they may substantiate suspicion of wrongdoing warranting further investigation. United States v. Marxen, 410 F.3d 326, 329 (6th Cir.2005). Lewis’s argument is based on an improper parsing of the information available to McCaw. See United States v. Orsolini, 300 F.3d 724, 728 (6th Cir.2002) (district court held to have erred by analyzing suspicious circumstances individually rather than in their totality). We therefore reject it. 1

Considering the totality of the circumstances, and giving due deference to the fact findings of the district court, which conducted the hearing and observed the testimony of the witnesses, see Branch, 537 F.3d at 587 (acknowledging that district court has institutional advantage in addressing reasonable suspicion inquiry), we find no error in the determination that Sergeant McCaw had reasonable suspicion justifying a brief investigative detention. Accordingly, defendant Lewis’s motion to suppress was properly denied. 2

*567 II. Possession of Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking (Lewis)

Under Count 13 of the indictment, defendant Lewis was found guilty of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A) and § 924(c)(l)(C)(l). The verdict was based on the seizure of a handgun during execution of a search warrant at Lewis’s residence on March 22, 2005.

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Related

United States v. Patrick Winters
782 F.3d 289 (Sixth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Marcus Story
582 F. App'x 654 (Sixth Circuit, 2014)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
327 F. App'x 562, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-manjate-ca6-2009.