USA. v. Ledford

• Decision Date: 27 June 2000
• Docket Number: Nos. 99-1648,99-1922,s. 99-1648
• Parties: (7th Cir. 2000) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Carl L. LEDFORD and Shane A. Thomas, Defendants-Appellants
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 684

218 F.3d 684 (7th Cir. 2000)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Carl L. LEDFORD and Shane A. Thomas, Defendants-Appellants.

Nos. 99-1648, 99-1922

In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit

Argued October 25, 1999

Decided June 27, 2000

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, Fort Wayne Division. No. 97 CR 31--William C. Lee, Chief Judge.

Before EASTERBROOK, MANION, and ROVNER, Circuit Judges.

ROVNER, Circuit Judge.

Carl Ledford and Shane Thomas robbed a bank in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Both men were armed, and in the course of the robbery, Thomas injured both a customer and a bank employee with his handgun. Based upon a bystander's 911 call, the authorities were able to stop the men's car as they attempted to make a getaway. A brief inspection of the automobile trunk revealed a firearm, a bag full of cash, and other incriminating evidence. A jury later convicted them of committing bank robbery by force and violence, or by intimidation, 18 U.S.C. sec. 2113(a), and using a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, 18 U.S.C. sec. 924(c). In calculating the sentencing range for each defendant, the district court found that they had inflicted bodily injuries in the course of the robbery, and that their offense levels should be adjusted accordingly. See U.S.S.G. sec. 2B3.1(b)(3)(A) (1998). Ledford and Thomas now challenge both their convictions and sentences, arguing that the district court should have suppressed the evidence discovered in the warrantless inspection of the car trunk and that in passing sentence the court improperly held them responsible for inflicting injuries on the bank patron and employee. We affirm.

I.

In the early afternoon of November 17, 1997, Ledford and Thomas backed a car up to the entrance of the Standard Federal Bank in the Waynedale section of Fort Wayne and walked into the bank. Both men carried handguns. Both were dressed in dark clothing and had covered their faces, one with a white hockey mask and the other with a black stocking cap and blue head covering with eye holes cut into it.

Upon entering the bank, they shouted at everyone to get down on the floor. Thomas struck one of the patrons, Donald McAfee, in the chest with his forearm, fist, and gun. McAfee suffered a contusion on his chest, and he was later hospitalized for examination when he complained of chest pains. Thomas subsequently took savings counselor Kamie Arnold with him to the bank vault and, after ordering her to open it, pressed his gun into the small of her back and pushed her into the jamb of the vault door. That shove resulted in bruises to Arnold's hand, arm, and her upper body. Arnold was unable to access the cash in the vault, however, prompting Thomas to assault her twice more with the gun: once he placed it against her head, threatening to kill her, and a second time he shoved the gun into her ribs, demanding more money. Thomas finally let Arnold be after bank teller Marjorie Creager screamed at him that the vault was inaccessible. In the end, Ledford and Thomas managed only to steal the money that was stored in the tellers' drawers.

Ledford and Thomas left the bank with $6,000 to $7,000 in cash, including some bait bills ($10 bills whose serial numbers were recorded by the bank). But their ill-gotten prosperity proved to be short-lived.

Car salesman Mark Sieger was sitting in his car watching the bank when the defendants emerged. His suspicions had been aroused moments earlier when the defendants cut him off at a traffic light near the bank, almost hitting him. (As the car passed him, he noticed that one of the two occupants had braided hair.) Sieger had pulled his car over when he saw the men back their car up to the bank entrance and enter the bank, leaving the car doors open. He noticed one of the defendants put something over his head as they walked into the bank. By the time Thomas and Ledford returned to their car, Sieger had already dialed 911 on his cell phone to report his suspicion that a robbery was underway. He saw that one of the men was carrying a bag, the other a gun. As the defendants proceeded to flee the scene in their car, Sieger followed them in his own vehicle. Moments later he saw the defendants pull into the parking lot of an apartment complex, access the trunk of a beige- or champagne-colored Cadillac Seville, and then continue their flight in the Cadillac. He reported this to the 911 dispatcher, with whom he had remained on the line, and resumed pursuit. Sieger lost sight of the Cadillac briefly during the chase, but subsequently re-acquired it. (He recognized the car by its damaged driver's-side door.)

Meanwhile, the police had been apprised over the radio of what Sieger had observed. Detective Mack Page of the Fort Wayne Police Department spotted the Cadillac and pulled his vehicle behind it. Page activated his emergency lights and siren. Sieger subsequently reported to the 911 dispatcher that a police car had pulled in between his own car and the Cadillac he was following. This information was in turn broadcast by the police dispatcher, and Page heard the report. At this point, the Cadillac was stopped for a red traffic right. After Fort Wayne police officer Darryl Caudill and Indiana State Trooper Daniel Taylor pulled up and joined Page, the three officers stepped out of their cars, pointed their guns at the Cadillac, and ordered the occupants out of the vehicle. This took place eight minutes after the robbery occurred.

One at a time, Ledford and Thomas stepped out of the Seville with their arms raised. Page took custody of a gun that was tucked into Thomas' belt. The police placed the defendants under arrest, handcuffed them, and placed them in police cars. Sieger subsequently identified Ledford and Thomas as the two men he had seen leaving the bank. He made that identification based on their clothes and Thomas' braided hair.

With Thomas and Ledford in custody, the officers shifted their attention to the Cadillac. Purportedly for their own safety and to confirm that there was neither an additional suspect nor a hostage in the trunk of the car, the officers decided to inspect it. Fort Wayne police detective Wayne Kelly opened the trunk while Page, Taylor, and Caudill (and possibly other officers) stood by with their guns aimed at it. No person was discovered inside, and the trunk was closed after a moment. While the trunk was open, however, the officers collectively noticed that it contained a gun, a bag containing loose U.S. currency, a hockey mask, and a black knit cap. Kelly subsequently opened the trunk for a second time to show another officer where the second gun was and then re- closed it after being admonished by his superiors.

The officers later obtained a search warrant for the car. In the passenger compartment of the Cadillac, the police discovered a black stocking cap with a pair of gloves and a blue head covering balled up inside of the cap, a black hooded sweatshirt, and a pair of white gloves. Within the trunk, they found a handgun, a knit cap with eye slits, a hockey mask, and a plastic bag containing $6,537 in cash, including $40 in bait money. A grand jury eventually indicted Ledford and Thomas on the robbery and firearm charges.

Ledford and Thomas moved unsuccessfully to suppress the evidence seized from the trunk of the Cadillac. They argued that the police officers lacked the probable cause necessary to make their initial warrantless inspection of the trunk. But after an evidentiary hearing, Judge Lee concluded that the facts known to the officers by the time the trunk was opened supplied probable cause to believe that the trunk contained contraband and/or evidence of the bank robbery. Alternatively, the judge believed that the possibility that there might be a firearm and/or another suspect or hostage within the trunk justified the warrantless search. The contents of the trunk were therefore admitted at trial, and as we have noted, a jury found both Ledford and Thomas guilty.

Judge Lee sentenced Ledford and Thomas to prison terms of 147 months, and 181 months, respectively. The pre-sentence reports indicated that the defendants had injured the bank employee and customer, rendering a two-level increase in the sentencing level appropriate pursuant to section 2B3.1(b)(3)(A) of the Sentencing Guidelines. The defendants objected to the enhancement, but after briefing and the presentation of testimony the court overruled the objections in a written opinion. Judge Lee sentenced each defendant at the high end of the sentencing range in view of the ruthless manner in which the men had treated the patrons and employees of the bank.

II.

A. Motion to Suppress

Ledford and Thomas contend that the preliminary, warrantless inspection of the trunk of their automobile violated their rights under the Fourth Amendment. After an evidentiary hearing, Judge Lee concluded that the search was supported on either of two grounds: (1) the officers conducting the search had probable cause to believe that the trunk of the automobile contained evidence of the bank robbery; and (2) the possibility that there might be a firearm in the trunk of the car amounted to an exigent circumstance permitting the search, as did the possibility that an accomplice or hostage might be secreted in the trunk. R. 49 at 6-9. As we noted above, Detective Kelly actually opened the trunk of the car not once, but twice, before a search warrant was obtained. Judge Lee believed that probable cause supported the second as well as the first search of the trunk, id. at 10, but that in any event the second search yielded nothing that the first had not already revealed, rendering the fruits of the latter search admissible under the independent source rule, id. at 10-11 (citing Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 104 S. Ct. 2501 (1984), and United States v. Gravens, 129 F.3d 974, 981 (7th Cir. 1997), ...