United States v. Presley

645 F. App'x 934
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 14, 2016
DocketNo. 15-11469
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 645 F. App'x 934 (United States v. Presley) 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. Presley, 645 F. App'x 934 (11th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Cedric Presley entered conditional guilty pleas to possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(C), possession with intent to distribute marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(D), possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i), possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and 924(e)(1), and possession of ammunition by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) and 924(e)(1). He contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress drugs, a firearm, and ammunition found in his vehicle.

Officer Kirk Watson was patrolling a neighborhood.in Tallahassee, Florida a little before 2:00 a.m. in response to a call from dispatch about a vehicle burglary. During that patrol, he saw a car parked in the driveway of a mobile home. The car’s front driver’s side door was open. He did not see anyone near the car. He thought that the car might have been burglarized. He decided to approach the car, make sure there were no suspects inside, and then ask the mobile home’s resident why the car door was open.

As he approached the front driver’s side door, he saw a man slumped in the driver’s seat with his head hanging forward. Watson first thought that he was a potential suspect because he appeared to match the description of one of the vehicle burglars. Watson could not tell if the man was sleeping or pretending to be asleep or uncon[936]*936scious. He then saw a handgun on the passenger seat, just to the right of the man’s hand. He retreated and called for backup.

After backup arrived, Watson and other officers approached the car. As Watson approached the driver’s door, the man sat up and looked at him. Watson told him not to reach for the handgun, ordered him to get out of the car, handcuffed him, and then moved him to the rear of the car. That detention took place at 1:59 a.m. At that point it was unclear to Watson and the officers if the man was one of the burglars or simply the owner of the mobile home who had fallen asleep in his car while parked in his driveway. One of the officers checked his identification card and ran a routine criminal history check. The man turned out to be Presley. The criminal history check, which was completed at 2:13 a.m., showed that he had twelve prior felony convictions.

Presley was arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm. When Watson picked up the firearm, a pill bottle rolled out from under it. The pill bottle appeared to contain crack cocaine, so the officers searched the entire vehicle and found more crack cocaine, as well as cocaine residue and marijuana.

Presley moved to suppress the drugs, firearm, and ammunition. The district court found that there was no evidence that Presley had participated in the burglary that was the original reason for Watson’s patrol. It also found that Presley did not match the descriptions of the vehicle burglars. The court found, however, that Watson had reasonable suspicion to approach an unattended car with an open door at 2:00 a.m. near a neighborhood where a vehicle burglary had just been reported. The court also found that seeing a man slumped over in the driver’s seat with a firearm next to him gave Watson additional reasonable suspicion to believe that there was a violation of Florida’s firearms law. At that point Watson “took prudent steps to separate ... Presley from the [firearm],” and a routine check showed that Presley was a convicted felon. The court concluded that Watson then had probable cause to arrest Presley. For all of those reasons, the court denied his motion to suppress. This is his appeal.

Presley contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because he was unlawfully detained and was detained for an unreasonable amount of time. “A motion to suppress evidence presents a mixed question of law and fact.” United States v. Lewis, 674 F.3d 1298, 1302 (11th Cir.2012). We review de novo the district court’s application of law to facts, and its factfindings for clear error. Id. at 1302-03. We construe all facts in the light most favorable to the prevailing party and give “substantial deference to the factfinder’s credibility determinations, both explicit and implicit.” Id. at 1303.

Law enforcement officers can detain a suspect “for a brief, investigatory ... stop where (1) the officers have a reasonable suspicion that the suspect was involved in, or is about to be involved in, criminal activity, and (2) the stop was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.” United States v. Jordan, 635 F.3d 1181, 1186 (11th Cir.2011) (quotation marks omitted). Reasonable suspicion is a “less demanding standard than probable cause and requires a showing considerably less than preponderance of the evidence,” but requires “at least a minimal level of objective justification for making the stop.” Lewis, 674 F.3d at 1303 (quotation marks omitted). We look at the totality of the circumstances in deciding whether reasonable suspicion exists for an investigatory [937]*937stop, asking whether the officers have “a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.” Id. at 1305 (quotation marks omitted).

Watson had a “particularized and objective basis” for detaining Presley. Id. (quotation marks omitted). He saw an unattended car parked in a driveway around 2:00 a.m. with its door open in a neighborhood adjacent to one where a vehicle burglary had been reported. He had reasonable suspicion to approach the car to investigate the situation. As the district court noted, “[o]ne would not expect an officer to just leave a car sitting there with an open door when there’s been a burglary in a nearby neighborhood.” After that, he saw Presley slumped over in the driver’s seat with a firearm next to him. Florida law prohibits the open carry of a firearm. Fla. Stat. § 790.053(1). A person can legally carry a firearm while traveling in a “private conveyance” only if it is “securely encased.” Id. § 790.25(3)(Z). The handgun, which was lying in plain sight on the passenger seat, was not “securely encased.” See id. § 790.001(17) (defining “securely encased” as in a glove compartment, holster, “zippered gun case,” or “closed box or container”). Those' facts gave Watson reasonable grounds to believe that Presley was violating Florida’s firearms laws. See Lewis, 674 F.3d at 1304 (holding that a suspect’s “admission to carrying a concealed weapon was sufficient to justify briefly stopping him”).1

Presley asserts that Fla. Stat.

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645 F. App'x 934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-presley-ca11-2016.