US v. Edwards

• Decision Date: 09 March 2001
• Docket Number: No. 00-1007,00-1007
• Citation: 242 F.3d 928
• Parties: (10th Cir. 2001) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CHRISTOPHER ALAN EDWARDS, Defendant-Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 928

242 F.3d 928 (10th Cir. 2001)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. CHRISTOPHER ALAN EDWARDS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 00-1007

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS TENTH CIRCUIT

March 09, 2001

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. (D.C. No. 99-CR-213-D) [Copyrighted Material Omitted] Howard A. Pincus, Assistant Federal Public Defender (Michael G. Katz, Federal Public Defender, with him on the briefs) of Denver, Colorado, for Defendant-Appellant.

Andrew A. Vogt, Assistant United States Attorney (Thomas L. Strickland, United States Attorney, District of Colorado, with him on the brief) of Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before EBEL,HOLLOWAY and MURPHY, Circuit Judges.

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Christopher Edwards ("Edwards") appeals his conviction and sentence for armed robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2113(a), (d). The district court denied Edwards' motion to suppress certain evidence obtained by the police immediately following his arrest on the grounds that Edwards' warrantless arrest was supported by probable cause and the subsequent search of bags stored in his companion's rental vehicle was a search incident to that arrest. Edwards was subsequently convicted and, at sentencing, received a two-point enhancement for obstruction of justice based upon his testimony at trial. For the reasons set forth herein, we find that the search of the rental car was not a valid search incident to arrest, and cannot be justified either as an inventory search or as a search supported by probable cause. We therefore REVERSE Edwards' conviction on the ground that the district court incorrectly denied his motion to suppress and REMAND this case to the district court.¹

I. BACKGROUND

At about 3:00 p.m. on June 4, 1999, the West Hollywood, California, police learned that a dye pack had gone off inside the City National Bank² when a bank employee tripped the bank's silent alarm. When the police arrived, they found Edwards and his girlfriend, Renee Dittrich, standing outside the bank with a parking lot attendant. An open camera bag was on the ground between them, with about $2000 in plain view. Red smoke was coming from the bag, the inside of the bag was covered with red dye, and some of the money appeared to be charred. Dittrich had red stains on her hands, face, and dress.

Deputies William Lynch and Timothy Fives frisked Edwards and Dittrich and did not find any weapons, but discovered a roll of United States currency in Edwards' pocket. Deputy Lynch then read Edwards his Miranda rights, see Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966), and Edwards agreed to talk with police. Deputy Fives questioned Edwards about the money and received two different stories: first, that it was profits from his dog-biscuit bakery in Boulder, and second, that it was the proceeds from selling three oil paintings in California. Deputy Fives asked for additional information about the paintings (for example, the name of the artist), and Edwards had "no good answers." Because Edwards could not supply details, Deputy Fives did not believe his stories. Deputy Fives responded by handcuffing Edwards and placing him in the back seat of a patrol car. Dittrich was also handcuffed and placed in the back of another patrol car.

While Edwards was being held in the back of the police car, but before he was transported to the police station, the police discovered that the City National Bank had not been robbed. The exact timing of this discovery is disputed, and it seems likely that different officers learned this at different times. During the time period when it is unclear exactly who knew the City National Bank had not been robbed, the police decided to search the rental car being used by Edwards and Dittrich.³ The car was rented in Dittrich's name, and Edwards was not listed on the rental agreement as an authorized driver of the vehicle. The rental car was parked in the City National Bank parking lot, roughly 50 feet from the bank entrance and 100 to 150 feet from where the police were questioning Edwards and Dittrich. The bank's parking lot attendant, Ernesto Lopez, pointed out the car as belonging to the couple. In their search of the rental car, the police found a clothing bag in the trunk of the car that was later identified as belonging to Edwards. The bag contained plastic bags full of dye-covered currency which was bundled together with Federal Reserve wrappers from the Bank in Boulder. Another bag belonging to Edwards, also seized from the trunk, contained a red-and-blue mask. After the police searched the car, they decided to impound it so that the Federal Bureau of Investigation ("FBI") could later search it again. The next day, after the car was impounded, the police found a sweatshirt and black shoes in the car; it is unclear exactly where in the car, or in Edwards' luggage, those items were found. The officer who conducted the search merely stated: "I went back over and removed everything from the car and just to look for if there was any additional evidence we had missed. And I recovered I booked in evidence a pair of shoes and a shirt."

Deputy Fives testified that he knew there had been no robbery of the City National Bank when he took Edwards to the station for booking. Edwards was thus booked for "reasonable cause 211," an armed robbery charge used when the police have probable cause to believe that a robbery has taken place, but do not yet know the victim.⁴ When they arrived at the station, Deputy Fives counted the money he had discovered on Edwards when patting him down at the scene and noticed that it was stained red. The stains resembled those caused by dye packs, which are used by banks to mark stolen money. Later, an FBI agent noticed that some of the currency retrieved from Edwards' bags in the rental car had a wrapper from the Bank in Boulder. The FBI then contacted its Denver office and learned that the Bank in Boulder had been robbed the previous week, on May 28, 1999. The mask and sweatshirt found in the rental car matched the description of items worn by the perpetrator of that crime. In addition, Edwards' physical description matched at least some of the physical descriptors provided by eye witnesses to the Bank in Boulder robbery. Based on this information, a magistrate judge issued a warrant on June 7, 1999, for Edwards' arrest on charges of armed robbery.

Later that day, the FBI took Edwards to the federal courthouse for his initial appearance on these charges. In the car, Edwards volunteered, "[i]f you would have asked me [where the money came from], I would have told you I found it." Because Edwards had invoked his right to counsel, the agents did not follow up on this statement.

Edwards was indicted for the robbery of the Bank in Boulder under 18 U.S.C. 2113(a), (d) on June 24, 1999. Edwards moved to suppress the evidence discovered when the police searched his bag and the statements he made to the police at the scene of his arrest, arguing that the police had lacked probable cause to arrest him. After hearing the testimony of several officers, the district court denied Edwards' motion to suppress, ruling that the officers had probable cause to arrest him even after they discovered that the City National Bank had not been robbed. The district court further held that, because the arrest was valid, the police's search of the rental car, and the bags contained within it, was a search incident to arrest and that Edwards' statements to the police were not "fruit of the poisonous tree."

At trial, the government introduced evidence about the incident at City National Bank that largely mirrored that presented against the motion to suppress. It also presented eyewitnesses to the Boulder robbery and a surveillance video. The Boulder robbery took place at about 11:35 a.m. on May 28, 1999. The tellers, a customer, and a passer-by on the street identified the mask and sweatshirt found by the police in Edwards' luggage as that worn by the robber.⁵ They also gave a generic description of the robber as a white male in his late 20s and roughly 5'10" tall, with a medium-pitched voice, medium build and sandy-brown hair. They could not identify Edwards.⁶ Renee Dittrich, who had since ceased her relationship with Edwards, also testified. She stated that Edwards bought her a ticket to California the day after the Bank in Boulder robbery and that, once she arrived in California, Edwards gave her several packets of money. Dittrich also identified the sweatshirt seized from the bags in the rental car, which Edwards denied owning, as belonging to Edwards.

Edwards' defense largely consisted of alibis for his whereabouts on the day of the robbery. Edwards testified that he picked up some glasses shortly after 11:00 a.m. At approximately 11:30 a.m., he went to a restaurant and stayed for about twenty minutes. Around 11:50 a.m., he went to the sunglasses store and spent nearly $140 in cash on a pair of Ray Ban sunglasses. Edwards testified that he then bought a shirt for nearly $150 and returned to the restaurant around 1:00 p.m. Around 2:00 p.m., he decided to go jogging through the Pearl Street mall area. As he passed a small wooded area with some stairs (about six or seven blocks from the bank), Edwards stated that he saw a $10 or $20 bill on the ground. He picked it up and saw a bag a few feet away. The bag was covered in something red and contained a garment and a lot of red-stained money. He picked up the bag and ran home. Edwards then left for California, as he had apparently been planning to do for some time. Once there, Edwards testified, he sold some paintings and then met Dittrich so they could travel together.

The jury convicted Edwards of armed bank robbery. The government moved to enhance his sentence for obstructing justice by giving false testimony. Edwards objected to this enhancement. The district court applied the enhancement solely on the...