United States v. Zabawa

134 F. App'x 60
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJune 7, 2005
Docket03-2592, 04-1115, 04-1282
StatusUnpublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 134 F. App'x 60 (United States v. Zabawa) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Zabawa, 134 F. App'x 60 (6th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge.

Defendant Philip Zabawa appeals his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm, assigning as error the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence. The United States cross-appeals the district court’s ruling that Zabawa is not an “armed career criminal” for the purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act (“ACCA”), 18 U.S.C. § 924(e) and the district court’s amended judgment specifying that Zabawa’s federal sentence should run concurrently with previously imposed state sentences. Because the police officers who seized the evidence entered against Zabawa had reasonable suspicion supporting their stop of his vehicle, we will AFFIRM the district court’s denial of Zabawa’s motion to suppress. We will VACATE Zabawa’s sentence and REMAND for resentencing because Zabawa is an “armed career criminal” for the purposes of the ACCA and because the district court lacked jurisdiction to amend Zabawa’s sentence to run concurrently with his state conviction.

I.

On May 3, 2001, Officer Paul Kasperski observed a pickup truck driven by Zabawa swerve across the fog line and onto the shoulder of the road. Officer Kasperski, who believed that the driver was drunk, activated his lights and siren, intending to pull Zabawa over to investigate. After *62 activating his lights, Officer Kasperski observed Zabawa swerve a second time before stopping this vehicle. Zabawa submitted to a field sobriety test, on which he did poorly, and Officer Kasperski arrested him and administered a field breath test. This test indicated that Zabawa’s blood alcohol level was.151. Officer Kasperski then conducted a search of his person, which yielded a loaded pistol. Officers also observed an AK-47 rifle lying in plain view upon the floor of Zabawa’s car, and a subsequent search of the vehicle at the police impound lot yielded a virtual arsenal of weapons.

Zabawa was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. He filed a motion to suppress the weapons found during the search of his vehicle, claiming that Officer Kasperski’s stopping of his truck was not supported by reasonable suspicion. The district court denied the motion to suppress, and the case went to trial, resulting in a verdict of guilty. At the sentencing hearing, the district court concluded that Zabawa was not an “armed career criminal” for the purposes of the ACCA, a classification that carries a mandatory 15-year sentence, and sentenced Zabawa to 137 months’ imprisonment. Six weeks after the initial pronouncement of the sentence, and five weeks after the entry of judgment and sentence, the district court entered an amended judgment and companion order, which ruled that Zabawa’s federal sentence should run concurrently with state sentences previously imposed. 1 Zabawa timely appealed his conviction and-the government cross-appealed.

II.

Zabawa argues that the district court erroneously denied his motion to suppress because Officer Kasperski’s stop of Zabawa’s vehicle was not supported by reasonable suspicion. We review the district court’s denial of a suppression motion under a mixed standard. United States v. Akridge, 346 F.3d 618, 622-23 (6th Cir. 2003). “We reverse the district court’s findings of fact only if they are clearly erroneous, but review de novo the district court’s legal conclusions. Where, as here, the district court has denied a motion to suppress, we review the evidence in a light most favorable to the Government.” Id. (internal citations omitted).

Police officers may detain a vehicle and question its occupants where the officers have a reasonable suspicion 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) (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). Arvizu stated “the likelihood of criminal activity need not rise to the level required for probable cause, and it falls considerably short of satisfying a preponderance of the evidence standard.” Id. at 273, 122 S.Ct. 744. Reasonable suspicion to stop depends on “the totality of the circumstances — the whole picture....” United States v. Cortez, 449 U.S. 411, 417, 101 S.Ct. 690, 66 L.Ed.2d 621 (1981). The reasonable suspicion analysis

proceeds with various objective observations, information from police reports, if such are available, and consideration of the modes or patterns of operation of certain kinds of lawbreakers. From these data, a trained officer draws inferences and makes deductions — inferences and deductions that might well *63 elude an untrained person. The process does not deal with hard certainties, but with probabilities. Long before the law of probabilities was articulated as such, practical people formulated certain common sense conclusions about human behavior; jurors as factfinders are permitted to do the same-and so are law enforcement officers. Finally, the evidence thus collected must be seen and weighed not in terms of library analysis by scholars, but as understood by those versed in the field of law enforcement.

Id. at 418, 101 S.Ct. 690.

Applying this standard, we conclude that Officer Kasperski’s stop of Zabawa’s vehicle was supported by reasonable suspicion. The officer testified that he observed Zabawa’s vehicle swerve over the fog line and onto the shoulder of the road. The district judge stated that a video tape of the incident, which was shot from a camera mounted on Officer Kasperski’s car, shows that Zabawa’s vehicle “crossed the white fog line for an appreciable distance.” Based on his experience as a police officer, Officer Kasperski inferred that Zabawa’s car was swerving because the driver was intoxicated. The officer further testified that after he activated his lights, he saw Zabawa swerve a second time, although this time the truck did not cross the fog line.

Zabawa argues that an isolated instance of swerving does not constitute reasonable suspicion to make a stop. Indeed, this court has stated that “briefly entering the emergency lane is insufficient to give rise to probable cause of a traffic violation and warrant an invasion of [the drivers’] Fourth Amendment rights.” United States v. Freeman, 209 F.3d 464, 466 (6th Cir.2000). Zabawa’s deviation, however, was not “brief.” The district court observed that Zabawa’s' vehicle crossed the line “for an appreciable distance.” Nor was this an isolated instance; Officer Kasperski observed Zabawa swerve twice within a quarter mile. Nor was there any apparent extrinsic reason for Zabawa’s swerving; there is no evidence suggesting that the driving conditions at the time were less than optimal. See Gaddis v. Redford Township,

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134 F. App'x 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-zabawa-ca6-2005.