U.S. v. Haynes

Decision Date16 August 2002
Docket NumberNo. 00-5079.,00-5079.
Citation301 F.3d 669
PartiesUNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Scott Lee HAYNES, Defendant-Appellant.
CourtU.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

Richard Leigh Grinalds, Asst. U.S. Attorney, Lennard B. Register, III (argued and briefed), Office of the U.S. Attorney, Jackson, TN, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

C. Mark Donahoe (argued and briefed), Byrd, Donahoe & Byrd, Jackson, TN, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before: BOGGS and CLAY, Circuit Judges; ROBERTS, District Judge.*

ROBERTS, D. J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which CLAY, J., joined. BOGGS, J. (pp. 685-687), delivered a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part.

OPINION

ROBERTS, District Judge.

I. Introduction

On February 1, 1999, Defendant Scott Lee Haynes (hereinafter, "Haynes") was indicted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee on two counts: (1) for unlawfully possessing a firearm which, as a convicted felon, was a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g); and (2) for unlawfully possessing a stolen firearm and transporting that firearm in interstate commerce, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(j) and 924(a)(4). Haynes subsequently filed a Motion to Suppress, which was denied following a hearing on July 2, 1999.

Thereafter, Haynes pleaded guilty to Count 1 of the indictment. The plea agreement provided that the Government would dismiss Count 2. Pursuant to a Rule 11 plea agreement, Haynes reserved the right to appeal the denial of his Motion to Suppress. On January 11, 2000, Haynes was sentenced to 180 months of incarceration and 3 years of supervised release.

This appeal followed. For the reasons stated below, we REVERSE the denial of the Motion to Suppress with respect to the evidence found in Haynes' car but AFFIRM the denial with respect to the statement he gave to the police following his arrest.

II. Background

Haynes was arrested by the Union City, Tennessee police department on October 23, 1998 at the apartment of Janice Justis1 . The circumstances leading to the arrest were described by Sergeant Michael George during the suppression hearing. George testified that, in the latter part of September 1998, he received information from authorities in Illinois that Haynes was wanted for burglaries and for parole violations. The items Haynes was alleged to have stolen included several firearms and several thousand dollars worth of jewelry. George was informed that Haynes was armed with a semiautomatic handgun, was dangerous, and had told his attorney that he would not be taken alive.

After receiving information that led him to believe that Haynes was staying in Justis' apartment, which was within the Union City Housing Authority complex, George contacted the housing manager. He was told that a white male fitting Haynes' description had pulled up in front of Justis' apartment in a gray Firebird. George was given the license plate number.

George then located Lieutenant Rick Kelly who, with Captain Vastbinder, went to check the apartment. Patrolmen Danny Carr and Tommy Lemons were also instructed to go to the apartment. Approaching the apartment, George heard Kelly's voice coming from inside the apartment. Upon entering the apartment, George saw a white woman, Kelly and Vastbinder. What occurred after that is in dispute.

George testified that he was in a bedroom of the apartment when Haynes was discovered by Carr and Lemons to be hiding between a mattress and box spring. To George's knowledge, Haynes was cuffed while in the bedroom. When asked whether Haynes was patted down at that time, George replied, "I would think so." When asked whether a set of car keys was removed from Haynes' pocket in the bedroom, George stated, "I don't know, sir." The keys "may have been taken out. I don't know if they were or not." George denied having told defense counsel and Federal Defenders Office Investigator Chris Odden that the car keys were taken out of Haynes pocket when he was patted down in the bedroom.

According to George, neither he, Carr nor Lemons left the bedroom before Haynes was taken out. When Carr and Lemons took Haynes outside, George remained in the bedroom. About ten or fifteen minutes later, the Chief of Police informed George that Haynes had given consent to search his vehicle. George denied any knowledge of an officer entering Haynes' car until he was taken outside and gave his oral consent.

Carr's testimony differs from George in one significant respect. Carr denies that Haynes was patted down when he was in the bedroom. He states that he and Lemons stood Haynes up and took him straight outside. Only upon leaving the apartment did Haynes get patted down. According to Carr, it was not until that time that he removed the keys from Haynes' pocket.

After Carr discovered that Haynes had keys on him, Carr testified that he asked Haynes whether the gray Firebird was his. Haynes replied that the car was his, but that it was registered to his daughter. Haynes informed Carr that he had purchased the car, and that anything in it was his. Then, according to Carr, he and Haynes had the following exchange:

I told him we needed to check the car if we could and asked him if that would be okay. He stated yeah but was concerned about his daughter, about it being registered to his daughter. And we asked him again — asked him, basically, the same question: if it was okay if we searched the car. He said yeah, but he just didn't want to get his daughter in trouble.

Armed with what he believed to be Haynes' consent, Carr used the key to open the Firebird door; it had previously been locked.

Lemons' testimony mirrors that of Carr, except that Lemons did not know whether the Firebird doors were locked. Lemons additionally testified that, during his and Carr's search of the Firebird, he found a .357 Magnum under the floorboard and some Kentucky Fried Chicken sacks. Lemons also revealed that, after searching the vehicle, he and Carr removed Haynes from the squad car and examined his mouth.

The testimony of three independent witnesses, Justis and Haynes contradicts that of George, Carr and Lemons. Carla Vibbert, who knew of but had never been introduced to Haynes, claimed to have viewed the entire scene outside of Justis' apartment on the day that Haynes was arrested. Vibbert saw the officers enter the apartment, only to have one of the officers exit the apartment and "open the car door and stuff." Only after that did Vibbert see Haynes being escorted from the apartment. When Haynes came outside, the officer who had been in the Firebird shut the door. Haynes was then placed in the patrol car, and the officers resumed their search. Vibbert did not see anything removed from the Firebird before Haynes was brought outside.

When asked how Vibbert knew that the person who first entered the car was a police officer, she replied that he was wearing a uniform. She further identified George as that officer. However, all of the police personnel who testified denied that George was wearing a uniform that day. Rather, he was dressed in plain clothing.

Shannon Brandon is another independent witness who did not know Haynes at the time. Brandon was visiting her friend, Tasha, who lived with her mother next door to Justis. She said that, about five or ten minutes after seeing the law enforcement personnel enter the apartment, a single officer came out. That officer, who was wearing a uniform, then opened the door of the gray Firebird and began looking around. Thereafter, Brandon saw two officers escort Haynes out of the apartment. Haynes was hollering something that Brandon could not understand. Brandon does not remember Haynes being patted down or the officer removing anything from his pockets before he was put into the squad car. She did, however, recall seeing the officers pull Haynes out of the squad car and examine his mouth following their search of the car.

The Tasha whom Brandon was visiting was Tasha King, who also testified at the suppression hearing, and who also did not know Haynes. King left her apartment and saw officers surrounding Justis' apartment. The officers entered the apartment. Before Haynes was brought out, one of the uniformed officers emerged from the apartment, went to Haynes' car and started searching. Haynes was brought out a few minutes later by two officers and began yelling, "What the fuck are you doing looking in my car?" After Haynes was placed in the squad car, the officers resumed their search of his Firebird. Like Brandon, King did not recall Haynes being patted down prior to being placed in the squad car, but did recall the examination of his mouth following the vehicular search.

Haynes was the final witness at the suppression hearing. He contended that "a slew" of officers, maybe five, were all crowded into the bedroom when he was discovered between the mattress and the box spring. He was handcuffed, brought to his feet and had his pockets emptied. One of the officers then said to another, "check this," at which time Haynes heard his car keys jingling. The officers next took Haynes into the hallway, where they stopped for a few minutes. Haynes does not believe that Lemons was among the officers who were escorting him from the apartment. He believes that Lemons was, instead, the officer who went out to search his car. After seeing Lemons pull his head out of the car and slam the door, Haynes asked, "What the F [are] you doing in my vehicle?" (J.A. 241) Subsequently, as Haynes was sitting in the squad car and talking to Justis, Lemons stooped down and asked him to sign a consent form. Haynes refused, stating, "F no. You don't have any cause." (J.A. 243)

At the hearing, Justis supported Haynes' testimony. She said that one of the officers asked Haynes to sign a consent form, and that Haynes replied by stating, "F no. I will not." (J.A. 146)

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