United States v. Norfleet

143 F. App'x 645
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 10, 2005
Docket04-5764
StatusUnpublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 143 F. App'x 645 (United States v. Norfleet) 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. Norfleet, 143 F. App'x 645 (6th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

KENNEDY, Circuit Judge.

The Defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, the object of which was the commission of an offense in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2. The Defendant raises the following arguments. First, he claims that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress all physical evidence on the ground that he was unlawfully seized when the vehicle in which he was a passenger was stopped without reasonable suspicion of criminal wrongdoing, and that, even if reasonable suspicion did exist to stop the vehicle, his subsequent detention ripened into an unlawful arrest without probable cause. The Defendant argues that the district court also erred in denying his motion to suppress recorded telephone conversations he made while in jail because, he asserts, the recorded conversations were obtained as a result of a McLaughlin violation since he was detained for more than forty-eight hours without being brought to a magistrate for a probable cause determination. Next, the Defendant asserts that the government presented insufficient evidence for any rational trier of fact to find him guilty. Finally, the Defendant contends that the district court erred in enhancing his sentence for obstruction of justice and in calculating his base offense level under the guidelines. For the following reasons, we AFFIRM the Defendant’s conviction, VACATE the Defendant’s sentence, and REMAND for re-sentencing consistent with United States v. Booker, — U.S. -, 125 S.Ct. 738, 160 L.Ed.2d 621 (2005).

BACKGROUND

On the evening of December 7, 2000, Sergeant Mark Calvi, a drug detector dog handler, received information that an employee of the U-Stor storage facility in Shelby County, Tennessee, discovered a large sum of cash hidden inside unit T-12 at the U-Stor facility. Since the storage unit’s lessee had become delinquent in his payments, a U-Stor employee sought to determine if the lessee had vacated the unit. To do so, the employee cut off the *648 lessee’s lock, opened the unit’s gate, discovered that the unit had not been vacated, and replaced the lessee’s lock with one of U-Stor’s locks. 1 On the morning of December 8, 2000, Sgt. Calvi detailed his drug detection dog on various units in the U-Stor facility and received a positive alert on two units, unit T-12 and unit K-3. After receiving these positive alerts, Sgt. Calvi contacted Officer Bierbrodt and requested that he obtain search warrants for those units. He also contacted additional officers to assist him in executing the warrant upon its receipt. These officers positioned themselves in a parking lot of a grocery store adjacent to the U-Stor facility. Meanwhile, the manager of the UStor told Sgt. Calvi that some men had come to the U-Stor office on the evening of December 7, 2000, and paid cash to restore the lease on unit T-12. The manager described the vehicle they were driving as a “gold SUV type vehicle.” The men also purchased a new lock from the U-Stor facility. After paying up on the unit and purchasing the new lock, the men requested that they be allowed to put their new lock on the unit. Although the men were permitted to put their lock on the unit, which they did, the manager informed them that they still could not immediately gain access to the unit’s contents since only the regional manager had the key to the lock that the U-Stor employee had put on the unit that morning, and that he, the local manager, would not be able to get that key until the next day.

While the officers waited for the search warrant, a bronze or gold Ford Explorer drove up to the U-Stor lot and stopped at the entrance gate. The manager told Sgt. Calvi that he believed that this vehicle was the same one that he had seen the previous day when the men had renewed unit T-12’s lease. To gain access to the storage facility, one has to input a code at the entrance gate. Each storage unit is assigned a unique code. The driver entered a valid code. Later, the officers learned that the driver had entered the code assigned to unit K-3, the other unit to which the drug detection dog had alerted. After gaining entrance, the Explorer drove toward building T. Sgt. Calvi then called the other officers in to do a take-down to investigate the occupants of the SUV. The officers followed the Explorer which stopped in front of the T building. After positioning vehicles both in front and behind the Explorer to prevent any potential escape, the officers approached the Explorer with their guns drawn, ordered the occupants, who consisted of the driver, Darelle Jones, and the lone passenger, the Defendant, from the vehicle, patted them down, handcuffed them, and placed them in one of the officers’ vehicle. In order to secure the scene, the officers transported the Explorer, Jones, and Defendant to the parking lot of the grocery store across the street. When they arrived at the grocery store parking lot, Sgt. Calvi detailed his narcotics detection dog around the Ford Explorer and the dog gave a positive alert. The officers searched the vehicle and found two kilogram wrappers containing cocaine residue. The officers also found Coastal transmission fluid in the rear seat, and two keys, one of which opened the lock that had been placed on unit T-12 the day before.

A short time later, Officer Bierbrodt arrived with search warrants for units T-12 and K-3. Inside unit T-12, officers *649 found several boxes of Coastal transmission fluid, and inside one of the transmission fluid boxes was approximately $56,000 in cash. Officers found a copy of the lease for the unit, which indicated the lessee was Marcus Brown. The address on the lease agreement was the same address as the Defendant’s. In unit K-3, the officers found several boxes of Coastal transmission fluid, a cooler containing four kilograms of cocaine, digital scales, and a lease agreement, which indicated the lessee was Nathaniel Phillips.

After his arrest, the Defendant was brought to Shelby County Jail and booked on Friday, December 8, 2000, at 6:24 p.m. While held at the Shelby County jail, the Defendant made five telephone calls, all between the time of 6:80 a.m. and 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, December 9. The calls were recorded and contain numerous inculpatory statements. There are several signs posted near the telephones at the jail that notify the inmates that their telephone calls are subject to monitoring and recording. Moreover, when the recipient of an inmate’s call accepts the call (all calls from the jail are collect calls), an audible recording is heard by both participants to the call that informs them that the call is subject to monitoring and recording.

After the jury found the Defendant guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute in excess of five kilograms of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C.

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Bluebook (online)
143 F. App'x 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-norfleet-ca6-2005.