United States v. Suggs

378 F. Supp. 3d 962
District Court, D. Colorado·Decided April 29, 2019·No. Criminal Case No. 18-cr-089-WJM·Published

Opinion

William J. Martinez, United States District Judge

A jury convicted Defendant Perry Wayne Suggs, Jr. ("Suggs"), of one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). (ECF No. 136.) Currently before the Court is Suggs's Amended Motion to Dismiss for Violation of Speedy Trial Rights (ECF No. 123 ), which Suggs filed in the middle of his first trial day. For the reasons explained below, this motion will be denied.

*964I. BACKGROUND

In February 2018, the Government charged Suggs with one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. (ECF No. 1 (indictment); see also ECF No. 24 (superseding indictment).) The Court set a trial date of May 7, 2018 (ECF No. 22 ), but Suggs requested five months' worth of continuances and then filed a suppression motion (ECF Nos. 35, 51, 54). The Court resolved the suppression motion on March 11, 2019 (ECF No. 89 ), and set his trial to begin on March 25, 2019 (ECF No. 90 ).

On March 19, 2019, Suggs filed a document stating, among other things, that he would "be filing a motion to dismiss for violation of his speedy trial rights ... prior to trial." (ECF No. 109 ¶ 7.) At the Final Trial Preparation Conference the next day, the Court informed Suggs's counsel that the trial would go forward regardless, and the Court would decide the speedy trial issue after trial, assuming a conviction.

On the morning of the first day of trial (March 25), not long before courtroom proceedings began, Suggs filed a Motion to Dismiss for Violation of Speedy Trial Rights. (ECF No. 120.) About an hour later, the Court struck that motion for exceeding the undersigned's page limits, with leave to refile. (ECF No. 122.) Suggs filed his amended motion (the motion currently under consideration) later that same day. (ECF No. 123.)

II. ANALYSIS

Suggs argues that his rights have been violated under both the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. §§ 3161 - 74 (the "Act"), and the Sixth Amendment's speedy trial guarantee. The Court will discuss each possibility in turn.

A. Speedy Trial Act

Criminal trials must "commence within seventy days from the filing date (and making public) of the information or indictment, or from the date the defendant has appeared before a judicial officer of the court in which such charge is pending, whichever date last occurs." 18 U.S.C. § 3161(c)(1). "If a defendant is not brought to trial within [seventy days, after accounting for tolling], the information or indictment shall be dismissed on motion of the defendant." Id. § 3162(a)(2).

1. Speedy Trial Calculation

Here, Suggs's initial appearance (which was later than the filing of the indictment) was on February 27, 2018. (ECF No. 6.) His trial began on March 25, 2019, at 9:18 AM, when voir dire began. (See ECF No. 125 at 2.)1 Thus, 391 calendar days elapsed between the initial appearance and the beginning of trial.2 At least 321 of those days must be tolled or Suggs did not go to trial within 70 Speedy Trial days.

Tolling took place in this case under three circumstances authorized by the Act:

• "delay resulting from any pretrial motion, from the filing of the motion through the conclusion of the hearing *965on, or other prompt disposition of, such motion," id. § 3161(h)(1)(D);3
• "delay reasonably attributable to any period, not to exceed thirty days, during which any proceeding concerning the defendant is actually under advisement by the court," id. § 3161(h)(1)(H); and
• "[a]ny period of delay resulting from a continuance granted by any judge on his own motion or at the request of the defendant or his counsel or at the request of the attorney for the Government, if the judge granted such continuance on the basis of his findings that the ends of justice served by taking such action outweigh the best interest of the public and the defendant in a speedy trial," id. § 3161(h)(7)(A), commonly known as an "ends-of-justice continuance" or "EOJ continuance."

The question before the Court is whether the events falling under these exceptions amounted to at least 321 days of tolling.

The chart below shows that tolling events, and the periods for which they tolled the Act, were often overlapping. They combine into four blocks of tolling that the Court has labeled A, B, C, and D:

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United States v. Suggs, 378 F. Supp. 3d 962 (D. Colo. 2019).

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