United States v. Robert Turner

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
DecidedDecember 4, 2024
Docket22-4055
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Robert Turner (United States v. Robert Turner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fourth 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. Robert Turner, (4th Cir. 2024).

Opinion

USCA4 Appeal: 22-4055 Doc: 58 Filed: 12/04/2024 Pg: 1 of 16

PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 22-4055

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff – Appellee,

v.

ROBERT KESHAUN TURNER,

Defendant – Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina, at Greensboro. Thomas D. Schroeder, District Judge. (1:20-CR-00350-TDS-1)

Argued: September 24, 2024 Decided: December 4, 2024

Before THACKER, HARRIS, and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by published opinion. Judge Harris wrote the opinion, in which Judge Thacker and Judge Quattlebaum joined.

ARGUED: Ryan M. Prescott, PRESCOTT LAW, PLLC, Clemmons, North Carolina, for Appellant. Laura Jeanne Dildine, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Daniel A. Harris, CLIFFORD & HARRIS, PLLC, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellant. Sandra J. Hairston, United States Attorney, Margaret M. Reece, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Greensboro, North Carolina, for Appellee. USCA4 Appeal: 22-4055 Doc: 58 Filed: 12/04/2024 Pg: 2 of 16

PAMELA HARRIS, Circuit Judge:

Robert Keshaun Turner pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm

after the police seized a gun from a car in which Turner was sitting. On appeal, Turner

first challenges the denial of his motion to suppress the gun on Fourth Amendment grounds.

Finding no Fourth Amendment violation, we affirm Turner’s conviction. With respect to

his sentence, Turner argues that inconsistencies between the supervised-release conditions

announced at his sentencing and those in his written judgment constitute error under United

States v. Rogers, 961 F.3d 291 (4th Cir. 2020). Again, we disagree and conclude no Rogers

error was committed. But because Turner’s criminal history score concededly was

miscalculated, resulting in a too-high Sentencing Guidelines advisory range, we vacate

Turner’s sentence and remand for resentencing.

I.

A.

The events underlying this case unfolded over a roughly two-day period in Durham,

North Carolina. During the evening of June 1, 2020, the brother of the defendant, Robert

Keshaun Turner, notified local law enforcement that his handgun, a black and gray Ruger

Model SR45, was missing from its usual place in a lockbox in his bedroom. When Officer

David Flores responded, Turner’s brother reported that the gun had been stolen by Turner,

the only other person with knowledge of the gun and access to its location. Turner’s brother

also advised that Turner was involved with the Folk Nation street gang, which was in

conflict with another gang at the time. Flores presented this information to a state

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magistrate judge, who issued a warrant for Turner’s arrest. In the process, Flores also

learned that Turner was a felon and a validated gang member.

The next night, Flores responded to a carjacking report in which the victim alleged

that Turner pointed a black and gray Ruger Model SR45 handgun at him and threatened to

shoot unless he gave Turner the keys to his car. Flores sought a second arrest warrant for

Turner, but while he was en route to the magistrate judge, the victim informed law

enforcement that Turner had returned his vehicle. Finding that the matter required further

investigation, the magistrate judge declined to issue a second warrant.

At around 2:00 a.m. on June 4, 2020 – less than 27 hours after the carjacking report,

and approximately two days after the initial theft of the gun – Flores responded to a shots-

fired call at an EZ Mini Mart. Flores was familiar with the location, having previously

responded to calls reporting gunshots, heavy gambling, and gang activity in that area.

When Flores arrived, other police officers were already on the scene, and Flores parked his

patrol car a short distance away. From that point forward, his activities were captured by

his body-worn camera.

As Flores approached the store, he recognized Turner sitting in the driver’s seat of

a stationary black Buick. After verifying Turner’s name, Flores asked Turner to exit the

vehicle, then handcuffed and arrested him on his outstanding warrant. Flores asked Turner

if there was anything on his person or in the vehicle about which law enforcement should

be aware; Turner replied that there was not. Flores proceeded to frisk Turner, finding no

weapons or contraband. He then placed Turner in the back of his patrol car.

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By the time Flores returned to the black Buick – roughly two minutes after first

taking Turner into custody – Flores’s immediate supervisor, Corporal Peterson, was

already searching the vehicle. Flores joined the search and, shortly thereafter, Peterson

found a firearm in the glove compartment. Flores later confirmed that the gun in the black

Buick was the gun stolen from Turner’s brother.

B.

Turner was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation

of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and possession of a stolen firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C.

§ 922(j). He moved to suppress the handgun, arguing that the officers’ warrantless search

of the black Buick violated the Fourth Amendment. The government opposed, arguing

that two Fourth Amendment warrant exceptions – the search-incident-to-arrest exception

and the automobile exception – each applied and independently justified the search.

At the suppression hearing, Officer Flores testified as to the events described above.

The district court credited Flores’s account, which was corroborated by the footage from

his body-worn camera that was admitted as evidence. See United States v. Turner, No.

1:20CR350-1, 2021 WL 2435609, at *1 (M.D.N.C. June 15, 2021). The district court then

denied Turner’s motion to suppress, holding that the search of the car in which Turner was

sitting was a lawful search incident to arrest. Id. at *4. In a thoroughly reasoned opinion,

the court applied the Supreme Court’s decision in Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (2009),

explaining that it allows for a warrantless search of a vehicle incident to the arrest of a

recent occupant so long as “it is reasonable to believe the vehicle contains evidence of the

crime of arrest.” Turner, 2021 WL 2435609, at *3 (quoting Gant, 556 U.S. at 351). This

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“reasonable to believe” standard, the court found, is a “less demanding standard than

probable cause.” Id.; see also id. at *3 n.2. And based on all the facts and circumstances

of which Officer Flores was aware at the time of the search, the district court concluded

there was “at least a reasonable belief that Turner’s vehicle contained evidence of the

larceny of the firearm” for which Turner was arrested “such that the search of the vehicle

incident to arrest was permissible” under Gant. Id. at *4.

C.

After his motion to suppress was denied, Turner pleaded guilty to possession of a

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