United States v. Vickers

540 F.3d 356, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 17154, 2008 WL 3319042
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedAugust 12, 2008
Docket07-10767
StatusPublished
Cited by75 cases

This text of 540 F.3d 356 (United States v. Vickers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Vickers, 540 F.3d 356, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 17154, 2008 WL 3319042 (5th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judge:

Michael Dewayne Vickers was convicted, after a jury trial, of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of federal law. Vickers timely appeals and challenges both his conviction and sentence. We AFFIRM.

I. BACKGROUND

On August 5, 2005, at approximately 3:00 p.m., the Dallas Police Department received a 911 call reporting a burglary. The caller described the burglar as a black male dressed in a red T-shirt and a dark-colored pair of shorts, and stated that the perpetrator might still be in the area. Vickers was walking down the street of his neighborhood in Dallas, Texas. The Dallas Police Department dispatched officers to investigate.

The first officer to arrive at the scene observed a black male wearing a red T-shirt and dark shorts walking on the sidewalk near the house that had been burglarized. It was Vickers. The officer stepped out of his patrol car and ordered Vickers to put his hands on the hood of the police vehicle. Vickers initially complied, but as the officer began to pat him down, Vickers said, “I can’t go to jail,” and attempted to flee. Vickers ran only a few steps before he was subdued and handcuffed.

After Vickers was subdued, the officers completed the search and discovered a .38 caliber pistol in the front left pocket of Vickers’s pants. After Vickers’s arrest, the person who had placed the 911 call approached and told the officers they “had the wrong guy.” It is now undisputed that Vickers was not involved in the burglary that prompted the 911 call. Vickers’s arrest was based solely on possession of the weapon found as a result of the search.

Vickers was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. See 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) & 924(e)(1). Vickers’s prior felony convictions justifying the charge included murder, burglary of a habitation, and unlawful delivery of a controlled substance. At his trial, Vickers presented no defense. His counsel informed the jury in closing arguments that the trial essentially *360 “pertain[ed] to Mr. Vickers’ right to appeal.” After brief deliberations, the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

At sentencing, the district court adopted the recommendation of the Presentence Report. The PSR determined that Vickers’s three prior felony convictions constituted either a “violent felony” or a “serious drug offense,” and designated Vickers as an Armed Career Criminal for purposes of sentencing. This designation mandated the imposition of a minimum sentence of fifteen years. Vickers objected to the characterization of his prior state conviction for delivery of a controlled substance as a “serious drug offense.” The district court overruled thé objection. The district court also denied Vickers’s request for a two-level reduction in his sentence for acceptance of responsibility.

The final calculation placed Vickers’s offense level at 33 with a Criminal History Category of IV. This resulted in a Sentencing Guideline range of 188-235 months. The district court sentenced Vickers to 190 months’ imprisonment and three years of supervised release. The court adjusted the sentence from 190 months to 168 months to account for 22 months of incarceration by the state of Texas that would not be credited to his sentence by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

On appeal, Vickers challenges both his conviction and sentence.

II. DISCUSSION

A Motion to Suppress

Vickers’s first argument is that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress. In evaluating a refusal to suppress evidence, we review questions of law de novo and factual findings for clear error. United States v. Mata, 517 F.3d 279, 284 (5th Cir.2008). In addition, where, as here, the police acted without a warrant, the burden is on the Government to prove that the search was valid. United States v. Waldrop, 404 F.3d 365, 368 (5th Cir.2005).

Vickers argues that the initial police action — pulling up in marked police vehicles and immediately instructing Vickers to place his hands on the police car — constituted an unconstitutional seizure under the Fourth Amendment because the officers had neither a warrant nor probable cause. The Government, on the other hand, characterizes the officers’ actions as a permissible “stop and frisk” because the officers had reasonable suspicion that Vickers was involved in the reported burglary based on the information provided in the 911 call.

The Fourth Amendment provides these relevant protections:

The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures by the Government, and its protections extend to brief investigatory stops by persons or vehicles that fall short of traditional arrest. Because the balance between the public interest and the individual’s right to personal security tilts in favor of a standard less than probable cause in such cases, the Fourth Amendment is satisfied if the officer’s action is supported by reasonable suspicion to believe that criminal activity may be afoot.

United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002) (internal quotes and citations omitted). The legality of a “stop and frisk” requires this analysis: were the officer’s initial actions justified when they occurred, and was there a reasonable relation between subsequent actions and the circumstances that supported the stop? United States v. Brigham, 382 F.3d 500, 506 (5th Cir.2004) (en banc).

*361 (a) The initial stop

The initial stop in a situation such as this is proper when “the officer has reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person has been, is, or is about to be engaged in criminal activity.” United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 227, 105 S.Ct. 675, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985) (emphasis and citation omitted). Reasonable suspicion requires less information and certainty than the probable cause needed to make an arrest. United States v. Jones, 234 F.3d 234, 241 (5th Cir.2000). Whether an officer has reasonable suspicion to stop is answered from the facts known to the officer at the time.

The Fourth Amendment does not require a policeman who lacks the precise level of information necessary for probable cause to arrest to simply shrug his shoulders and allow a crime to occur or a criminal to escape. On the contrary, Terry [v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Holmes v. Reddoch
117 F.4th 309 (Fifth Circuit, 2024)
United States v. Gonzalez
Fifth Circuit, 2024
Vickers v. United States
N.D. Texas, 2024
United States v. Kerstetter
82 F.4th 437 (Fifth Circuit, 2023)
United States v. Alkheqani
78 F.4th 707 (Fifth Circuit, 2023)
United States v. Jaime Campos
79 F.4th 903 (Eighth Circuit, 2023)
Williams v. Johnson County
Fifth Circuit, 2023
Travis v. United States
N.D. Texas, 2023
United States v. Isaac Johnson
70 F.4th 1115 (Eighth Circuit, 2023)
United States v. Wade
Fifth Circuit, 2023
United States v. Clark
Fifth Circuit, 2022
United States v. Timmy Fields
44 F.4th 490 (Sixth Circuit, 2022)
United States v. Mark Gould
30 F.4th 538 (Sixth Circuit, 2022)
United States v. Travis
Fifth Circuit, 2021
Evans v. Lindley
Fifth Circuit, 2021
Holmes v. Reddoch
E.D. Louisiana, 2021
United States v. Norbert
Fifth Circuit, 2021
United States v. Michael Vickers
967 F.3d 480 (Fifth Circuit, 2020)
United States v. Fernando Godinez
955 F.3d 651 (Seventh Circuit, 2020)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
540 F.3d 356, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 17154, 2008 WL 3319042, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-vickers-ca5-2008.