United States v. Samuel Davis, Jr.

175 F. App'x 286
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedMarch 29, 2006
Docket05-12944; D.C. Docket 04-00546-CR-T-24-TGW
StatusUnpublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 175 F. App'x 286 (United States v. Samuel Davis, Jr.) 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. Samuel Davis, Jr., 175 F. App'x 286 (11th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Samuel Davis, Jr. appeals his conviction and sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(e)(1). Davis asserts the following arguments on appeal: (1) the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence because law enforcement officers detained him without reasonable suspicion; (2) 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) is unconstitutional on its face and as applied to him; and (8) the district court clearly erred by denying him a reduction for acceptance of responsibility. We affirm Davis’s conviction and sentence.

I. DISCUSSION

A. Motion to Suppress

We review a district court’s denial of a defendant’s motion to suppress under a mixed standard of review, reviewing the district court’s findings of fact under the clearly erroneous standard and the district court’s application of law to those facts de novo. See United States v. Gil, 204 F.3d 1347, 1350 (11th Cir.2000). The facts must be construed in the light most favorable to the party prevailing in the district court. United States v. Santa, 236 F.3d 662, 668 (11th Cir.2000).

The Fourth Amendment provides “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated----” Generally, evidence seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment may not be introduced into evidence. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1884, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). However, law enforcement officers may, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, “stop and briefly detain a person to investigate a reasonable suspicion that he is involved in criminal activity, even though probable cause is lacking.” United States v. Williams, 876 F.2d 1521, 1523 (11th Cir.1989) (citing Terry, 88 S.Ct. at 1884). “[Reasonable suspicion, like probable cause, is not ‘readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules.’ ” United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 1585, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989). Reasonable suspicion is “considerably less than proof of wrongdoing by a preponderance of the evidence” and less than probable cause. Id. The “reasonable suspicion” must be more than an “inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or ‘hunch.’” Id. (citation omitted).

“Reasonable suspicion is determined from the totality of the circumstances, and from the collective knowledge of the officers involved in the stop.” Williams, 876 F.2d at 1524 (internal citation omitted). The officer “must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.” Terry, 88 S.Ct. at 1880. “Such facts may be derived from ‘various objective observations, information from police reports, if such are available, and consideration of the *288 modes or patterns of operation of certain kinds of lawbreakers.’ ” Williams, 876 F.2d at 1524 (citation omitted). Also, “[a] reasonable suspicion of criminal activity may be formed by observing exclusively legal activity.” United States v. Gordon, 231 F.3d 750, 754 (11th Cir.2000).

In Florida v. J.L., the Supreme Court stated:

Unlike a tip from a known informant whose reputation can be assessed and who can be held responsible if her allegations turn out to be fabricated, an anonymous tip alone seldom demonstrates the informant’s basis of knowledge or veracity. As we have recognized, however, there are situations in which an anonymous tip, suitably corroborated, exhibits sufficient indicia of reliability to provide reasonable suspicion to make the investigatory stop.

529 U.S. 266, 120 S.Ct. 1375, 1378, 146 L.Ed.2d 254 (2000) (internal quotations and citations omitted). The Supreme Court also held the presence of an individual matching the physical description given by an anonymous tip in the area indicated by the tip is insufficient, standing alone, to establish reasonable suspicion. Id. at 1379.

The district court did not err by denying Davis’s motion to suppress evidence because reasonable suspicion supported Davis’s detention. As an initial matter, although Davis notes the dispatcher informed Deputy McClusky the burglary suspect was sitting in a burgundy, two-door Saturn with license plate number 298JII, and a white female with red hair was sitting in the driver’s seat, Deputy McClusky testified (1) he did not recall whether the dispatcher had given him a description of the vehicle involved in the burglary, and (2) he was having a hard time hearing his radio because the area he was in was experiencing the effects of Hurricane Francis. In any event, the record demonstrates Deputy McClusky and Sergeant Noordzy had a reasonable suspicion that Davis was involved in the burglary at the time Deputy McClusky questioned Davis, given the following: (1) Deputy McClusky and Sergeant Noordzy testified they arrived at the scene of the suspected burglary within minutes of the receipt of the 911 call; (2) Deputy McClusky testified the dispatch report indicated a car suspected of being involved in the burglary was still parked in front of the trailer, and Davis’s car was located approximately 10 to 15 feet in front of the trailer; (3) after hearing a tape of the transmission between the dispatcher and Deputy McClusky, Sergeant Noordzy testified there was not a vehicle with occupants at the trailer matching the description of the vehicle described by the dispatcher; and (4) Sergeant Noordzy testified the driver of Davis’s car informed him that the driver had just picked up Davis, who is a black male, and that his dispatch screen had reported a witness had observed a black male crawling through the window of the trailer. Although Davis asserts his detention could not be based on his matching “a vague racial description,” the record shows Sergeant Noordzy did not order Deputy McClusky to question Davis based solely on his matching the racial description of the individual seen crawling through the window of the trailer, given that Davis’s vehicle was the only occupied vehicle parked in front of the trailer and that the driver informed Sergeant Noordzy he had just picked up Davis. See J.L., 120 S.Ct. at 1379.

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Bluebook (online)
175 F. App'x 286, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-samuel-davis-jr-ca11-2006.