United States v. William Mitchell

454 F. App'x 39
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedDecember 8, 2011
Docket10-4222
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 454 F. App'x 39 (United States v. William Mitchell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third 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. William Mitchell, 454 F. App'x 39 (3d Cir. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

HARDIMAN, Circuit Judge.

William Mitchell appeals the District Court’s judgment of conviction and sentence after he pleaded guilty to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). We will affirm.

I

Because we write for the parties, who are well acquainted with the case, we recite only the essential facts and procedural history.

A

The facts found by the District Court following the suppression hearing are not in dispute. Around midnight, Wilmington Police Officers Israel Santiago and Michael Hayman were responding to a report of shots fired near the intersection of Fifth and Clayton Streets when they encountered a vehicle traveling nearby on Dupont Street at approximately five miles per hour with its headlights turned off. While passing the vehicle in the opposite direction, Santiago informed the driver that her lights were off, but the driver disagreed. Santiago then observed Mitchell “crouched” in the back seat of the vehicle. After the cars passed one another, the driver turned on her headlights as Santiago made a u-turn, activated his lights, and initiated a traffic stop. Santiago and Hay-man exited the police cruiser and approached the vehicle from opposite sides. Santiago asked the driver several times to turn off the vehicle’s engine before the driver complied. He noticed that Mitchell was seated behind the driver with his hands crossed over his midsection. Mitchell did not make eye contact with the officers. Santiago then requested identification from Mitchell and the driver, and they obliged. By that time, Officer Thomas Oliver had arrived at the scene to assist Santiago and Hayman, and Santiago asked Oliver to check if Mitchell had any outstanding warrants or criminal history. Although the search revealed no warrants, it indicated that Mitchell had a criminal record, including weapons offenses.

Santiago ordered the- driver and Mitchell from the vehicle, but Mitchell refused. Santiago and Hayman drew their service weapons. They ordered Mitchell to exit the vehicle several additional times, but he did not comply. Oliver then opened the rear passenger door and pulled Mitchell out of the vehicle and onto the ground. Mitchell initially refused to place his hands behind his back, but did so after the officers threatened to tase him. Oliver handcuffed him and patted him down, locating a firearm tucked into Mitchell’s pants near his abdomen. As Oliver removed it, Mitchell offered: “It’s not real. It’s a fake.”

B

Mitchell moved to suppress the firearm and his statement on the basis of Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), arguing that the officers lacked an articulable suspicion to conduct the pat down. Mitchell also argued that the gun was discovered and his statement was obtained as the result of an illegal interrogation in violation of Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602,16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). The District Court conducted a suppression hearing and received briefs on *41 the matter before finding that the traffic stop was legal and denying the motion oh both grounds. Mitchell then entered a conditional plea of guilty pursuant to a written agreement that reserved his right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion.

II

Because Mitchell does not contest the District Court’s factual findings, we exercise plenary review over the denial of the motion to suppress. See United States v. Warren, 642 F.3d 182, 183 n. 1 (3d Cir.2011); United States v. Stabile, 633 F.3d 219, 230 (3d Cir.2011). On appeal, Mitchell challenges only the frisk, and not the initial traffic stop or the ruling on his Miranda argument.

A police officer may order a passenger from a lawfully stopped vehicle “as a matter of course.” Maryland v. Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 410, 117 S.Ct. 882, 137 L.Ed.2d 41 (1997); United States v. Kithcart, 218 F.3d 213, 219 (3d Cir.2000); accord Arizona v. Johnson, 555 U.S. 323, 331-32, 129 S.Ct. 781, 172 L.Ed.2d 694 (2009). Accordingly, we find no fault with the order directing Mitchell from the car. Nor can we fault the officers’ decision to use force to remove him from the vehicle when he failed to comply with the order, because to “effectuat[e] a valid stop, police officers are allowed to use a reasonable amount of force.” United States v. Bonner, 363 F.3d 213, 217 (3d Cir.2004) (citing Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386, 109 S.Ct. 1865, 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989)).

In addition, an “officer may pat down the occupants of the vehicle and conduct a search of the passenger compartment, if he has a reasonable suspicion that the occupants might be armed and dangerous.” Id. at 216 (citing Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1049-50, 103 S.Ct. 3469, 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 (1983)); see Johnson, 555 U.S. at 332, 129 S.Ct. 781 (“[Officers who conduct ‘routine traffic stop[s]’ may ‘perform a “patdown” of a driver and any passengers upon reasonable suspicion that they may be armed and dangerous.’ ” (second alteration in original) (quoting Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113, 117-18, 119 S.Ct. 484, 142 L.Ed.2d 492 (1998))). “Although reasonable suspicion is less demanding than probable cause, the Fourth Amendment does require that an officer making a stop have some level of objective justification for that stop.” Bonner, 363 F.3d at 217 (citing United States v. Sokolow, 490 U.S. 1, 7, 109 S.Ct. 1581, 104 L.Ed.2d 1 (1989)). The totality of the circumstances dictates whether reasonable suspicion exists. Id.

The evidence at the suppression hearing as found by the District Court easily clears the reasonable suspicion hurdle. Mitchell was seen crouching in the back seat of a vehicle, which was traveling at an unusually low speed in the dark of night with its headlights off. Mitchell kept his hands in such a position that he appeared to be concealing something, and he refused to comply with the officers’ orders to leave the vehicle. See United States v. Moorefield, 111 F.3d 10

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
454 F. App'x 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-william-mitchell-ca3-2011.