United States v. Quadricus Dean

657 F. App'x 503
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 22, 2016
Docket15-6244
StatusUnpublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 657 F. App'x 503 (United States v. Quadricus Dean) 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. Quadricus Dean, 657 F. App'x 503 (6th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

MARTHA CRAIG DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge.

The defendant, Quadricus Dean, was stopped by police after he pulled his car out of a parking lot and across five lanes, nearly striking a police car, and then swerved into the next lane, almost hitting a second car. During the traffic stop, Dean appeared confused and an officer detected the odor of marijuana, so the officers removed Dean from the vehicle and searched it. The search uncovered marijuana, cocaine, and a handgun, and Dean was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. After his motion to suppress the evidence from the traffic stop was denied, Dean pleaded guilty and was sentenced. He now appeals the denial of his motion to suppress and the portion of the supervised-release condition in his written judgment that was not pronounced orally at the sentencing hearing. Finding no clear error, we affirm the denial of the motion to suppress. However, because the government concedes that the district court abused its discretion in imposing the additional supervised-release condition, we remand this matter for entry of an amended judgment that conforms to the supervised-release condition announced at sentencing.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Dean was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He moved to suppress the evidence supporting the charge, which was obtained from a search of his car during a traffic stop. A magistrate judge conducted a suppression hearing, in which three witnesses testified. The government called Officers Beasley and Neely, the policemen who stopped Dean, searched his car, and arrested him. The defense called Victoria Peeples, Dean’s fi-ancée, who witnessed the events leading up to the stop.

Beasley testified that he was driving his marked patrol car eastbound on Winchester Road around 8:00 PM on his way to respond to an alarm. He witnessed a vehicle rapidly pull out of the parking lot of the Super Center Laundromat and cross five lanes, entering the lane in which Beasley was traveling. The vehicle entered the lane less than one car length in front of Beasley, who had to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision. The vehicle then maneuvered into the adjacent lane without signaling, almost striking a second vehicle. Beasley turned on his lights and initiated a traffic stop. After driving less than 0.2 miles on Winchester, the offending driver turned left on Kirby Road and stopped immediately.

Beasley approached the vehicle, which was being driven by Dean, and asked Dean for his driver’s license and insurance information. Dean appeared dazed and just stared at Beasley for a few seconds, appearing not to understand the request. This lasted longer than the “normal time” of 15 to 20 seconds in which individuals usually can produce a driver’s license. *505 Dean then began reaching under his seat and between the seat and the center console. Around this time, Neely, who was standing on the passenger side of the car, gave Beasley a sign indicating that he could smell marijuana. Beasley could not smell marijuana because he “had some type of sinus infection.” Beasley asked Dean to exit the vehicle, placed him in handcuffs, and moved him to the back seat of the police car.

Neely testified that he was driving ahead of Beasley on Winchester, and he turned around after he saw Beasley initiate the traffic stop. When he arrived at the stop, Neely observed Dean looking confused and as if “he ... didn’t know what was going on, [or] what was [sic] the questions being asked.” Neely testified that Dean did not say anything and was “[k]ind of baffled about why he was being stopped.” Neely observed Dean searching around and digging under his seat. Neely noticed the “smell of raw marijuana coming from the vehicle” and conveyed this to Beasley. At the suppression hearing, Neely did not recall whether the passengér’s side window of the car was rolled down when he smelled marijuana. He testified that the amount of time between when Beasley approached Dean’s car and when Dean was removed from the vehicle “wasn’t that long at all” and could be measured “in seconds.”

Once Dean had been removed from the vehicle, Neely searched the car for contraband. Inside the center console, he found a handgun, ammunition, 1.16 grams of marijuana in a plastic bag, 2.55 grams of powder cocaine, 16.43 grams of crack cocaine, scales, and a spoon. Neely also found Dean’s driver’s license underneath and slightly behind the driver’s seat. After Neely located the contraband, Dean was arrested.

Peeples, the defense witness, offered a different version of the events leading up to the traffic stop. She testified that she was taking a break from her job at the Super Center Laundromat on Winchester when Dean pulled into the parking lot and talked with her for about ten minutes. Peeples said that she watched Dean wait ■with his left blinker on for 10 to 20 seconds before pulling out onto Winchester. According to Peeples, after Dean pulled onto Winchester, she continued to watch for about 10 seconds but did not see any police cars or see Dean swerve or come into close contact with another vehicle. Peeples said that she. then returned to work and did not see the traffic stop or the events that followed.

After hearing the witnesses’ testimony and the parties’ arguments, the magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation, in which he found the officers’ testimony to be credible and adopted their version of events. The magistrate judge credited the officers’ testimony over Pee-ples’s because of Peeples’s close relationship with Dean, the witnesses’ demeanor, and “the fact that the officers were in the process of responding to an alarm call and terminated their response in order to stop Dean’s vehicle.” The judge concluded that Beasley had probable cause to stop Dean because Beasley witnessed Dean committing traffic violations. The magistrate judge also found that the officers had probable cause to search Dean’s vehicle based on the odor of marijuana Neely detected. The magistrate judge recommended that Dean’s motion to suppress be denied, and the district court adopted the recommendation over Dean’s objection, giving great deference to the magistrate judge’s credibility determinations.

Dean pleaded guilty, reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. The district court sentenced Dean *506 to 87 months of imprisonment, and this appeal followed.

DISCUSSION

Denial of Motion to Suppress

In an appeal from the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress, we review the district court’s findings of fact for clear error, its legal conclusions de novo, and the evidence in the light most favorable to' the government. United States v. Jackson, 682 F.3d 448, 452 (6th Cir. 2012). A district court’s factual finding is clearly erroneous when, “although there-is evidence to support the finding, the reviewing court on the entire evidence is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.” United States v. Worley, 193 F.3d 380, 384 (6th Cir. 1999) (internal quotation marks and citation' omitted).

The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const, amend. IV.

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Bluebook (online)
657 F. App'x 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-quadricus-dean-ca6-2016.