U.S. v. James

• Decision Date: 24 July 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-2411.,07-2411.
• Citation: 534 F.3d 868
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Calvin JAMES, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

534 F.3d 868

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Calvin JAMES, Appellant.

No. 07-2411.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: March 13, 2008.

Filed: July 24, 2008.

James E. Ostgard, argued, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellant.

William Anders Folk, AUSA, argued, Minneapolis, MN, for Appellee.

Before BYE, SMITH, and COLLOTON, Circuit Judges.

SMITH, Circuit Judge.

Calvin James was indicted on one count of bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). James filed a pretrial motion to suppress and an amended motion to suppress evidence recovered during police searches of two motel rooms and his person. The district court¹ denied the motions. After trial, a jury convicted James of the bank robbery. James moved for a new trial, renewing his challenge to the use of evidence obtained from the searches. The district court² denied the motion and sentenced James to 210 months' imprisonment. James now appeals the district court's admission of evidence obtained from the motel rooms. We hold that no Fourth Amendment violation occurred and affirm.

I. Background

On July 23, 2006, a TCF Bank in Minneapolis was robbed. The bank robber escaped with a bag of cash, but the teller had secretly placed a dye pack—which was designed to explode and stain the money with dye—in with the money. Witnesses described the bank robber as a black male, approximately five feet eleven inches tall, weighing about 185 pounds, and believed to be in his 20's to 30's. The robber was also captured on the bank's video surveillance cameras.

On July 31, 2006, FBI Special Agent Benjamin Hruz received a phone call from St. Paul Police Officer Sheila Lambie. Officer Lambie told Agent Hruz that a reliable confidential informant (CI) had told her that a man named Calvin James was in possession of red dye-stained money and that James was in a motel room at the Xcel Inn in St. Paul. Upon investigating the name "Calvin James," Agent Hruz learned that the FBI had an open file on James for a previous bank robbery conviction. Agent Hruz compared James's previous booking photograph with images from the bank's surveillance cameras and concluded that the subjects in the two photos generally matched, providing Agent Hruz with sufficient information to investigate James as a suspect in the July 23rd bank robbery. Agent Hruz arranged to meet with Officer Lambie to discuss and plan the investigation of James.

Unbeknownst to Agent Hruz, and unrelated to the bank robbery investigation, around 9:00 a.m. on July 31, 2006, the St. Paul Police received a report of an assault at the Xcel Inn in St. Paul. Officer Murray Prust responded to the call. Dispatch informed Officer Prust that a female in the motel's lobby claimed to have been assaulted and that the suspect fled the scene. As Officer Prust drove towards the motel, he recognized the motel's manager two blocks from the motel at a gas station. Knowing that another police unit was on its way to the motel, Officer Prust stopped at the gas station to talk with the motel manager. The motel manager, obviously out of breath, told Officer Prust that he had chased the fleeing assault suspect but had lost sight of him. The manager speculated that the suspect boarded a city bus near the gas station.

Officer Prust then proceeded to the Xcel Inn where he found the female victim inside the manager's office. The victim was crying, had difficulty breathing, and had visible marks on her head that could have been injuries from the alleged assault. The victim told Officer Prust that she had been in Room 322 of the motel with Calvin James and that she and James had packed their belongings and were leaving the motel when James assaulted her. The victim told Officer Prust that after the assault, James "fled with all his stuff" and that she went to the motel's lobby. The manager of the motel produced a photograph of the person registered to Room 322 and told Officer Prust that the registrant's name was Calvin James. The manager also informed Officer Prust that James had made payment on the room through that day and that he believed James was supposed to check out by noon that day.

After paramedics transported the victim to the hospital, Officer Prust and the manager went to Room 322, where the manager used his key-card to gain entry into the room. Officer Prust entered the room to look for any evidence that would corroborate the victim's account of the assault. Once inside, Officer Prust only conducted a visual inspection of the room, not a full search—he did not open any drawers or closets, and did not attempt to process the scene. Officer Prust noticed drug paraphernalia but no other personal items in the room. He also noticed that all of the trash from the room had been packed inside the room's trash cans. Based upon his observations and experiences, Officer Prust concluded that Room 322 was vacant.

After instructing an officer to guard Room 322, Officer Prust left the motel and went to the hospital to check on the victim. While talking to the victim, Officer Prust learned that the victim had been held against her will by James for several days and that James had sexually assaulted her. The victim also told Officer Prust that James had a large amount of cash while at the room, that the money was in a black bag, and that the money had red stains on it. Officer Prust then left the hospital, went to the police station to pick up the supplies necessary to process Room 322 and returned to the motel room, arriving shortly after 11:00 a.m. The officer who had been guarding Room 322 informed Prust that no one had come to claim Room 322.

As Officer Prust began processing the room for evidence of a sexual assault, he went through the contents of the trash can and noticed cut pieces of U.S. currency with red dye stains on them. Officer Prust also noticed towels with faded red dye on them and a piece of cardboard with a large red dye stain on it. This was the first time Officer Prust had noticed any red dye stains in the room. Officer Prust suspected that the red dye stains might have come from an exploded dye pack and placed a phone call to the FBI. Officer Prust spoke to Agent Hruz and told him about the pieces of dye-stained money he had found during the sexual assault investigation at the Xcel Inn, and Agent Hruz informed Prust that James was being investigated as a suspect in the July 23rd robbery of TCF Bank. Agent Hruz informed Officer Prust to contact Sergeant Kevin Moore of the St. Paul Police Department's Special Investigation Unit, as the FBI had already established contact with the Sergeant. When Officer Prust contacted Sergeant Moore, he instructed Prust to stop processing the Xcel Inn scene and wait for the arrival of the FBI. Officer Prust then stopped all activity in Room 322 until the FBI arrived.

Agent Hruz met Officer Prust at Room 322 and "froze" (restricted access to) the room until a search warrant was obtained. Based upon information provided by Agent Hruz, a Minneapolis Police Department sergeant who was also investigating the TCF Bank robbery obtained a state search warrant for Xcel Room 322. Agent Hruz observed the search of Room 322 conducted by the St. Paul police department. During the search, Agent Hruz left to follow up a tip about James's location. At no point during the execution of the search warrant did James or anyone else return to Room 322 or attempt to stop the search.

Later that day, Officer Lambie received information that James had checked into a room at the Economy Inn. Officer Lambie and another officer went to the Economy Inn and confirmed with a hotel clerk that James was registered to Room 419. Then they set up surveillance in a room diagonally across from Room 419. Several other officers, including Agent Hruz, also participated in the surveillance and were positioned in various locations in and around the motel. After observing James leave Room 419 and walk into the manager's office, and confirming that James was the same person who had rented Room 419, the officers arrested James as he exited an elevator. The officers searched James and found red dye-stained money on his person.

Following the search of James, Agent Hruz and other officers entered Room 419 to conduct a security sweep of the room. During the security sweep, Agent Hruz saw more red dye-stained money in plain-view inside the room. Agent Hruz then "froze" the scene and sought a search warrant for the room. The FBI obtained a federal search warrant for Room 419, and the search warrant was executed that same evening. The warrant-authorized search uncovered a black bag containing various red dye-stained items including clothing, additional money, and a receipt from the Xcel Inn.

Thereafter, James was indicted on one count of bank robbery, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2113(a). James moved to suppress all items recovered from the search of Room 322 of the Xcel Inn, Room 419 of the Economy Inn, and his person. The district court denied James's motions to suppress, and he was subsequently found guilty of bank robbery by a jury. After denying James's motion for new trial, which renewed his challenge to the use of evidence obtained as a result of the searches, James was sentenced to 210 months' imprisonment.

II. Discussion

On appeal, James argues that the evidence recovered from inside the two motel rooms should have been suppressed as the searches were unreasonable in violation of the Fourth Amendment. He seeks a new trial without the improperly admitted evidence. We will address each search in turn.

A. Search of Xcel Inn Room 322

James contends that the search of Xcel Inn Room 322 was unreasonable in violation of the Fourth Amendment because Officer Prust entered the room twice and conducted a warrantless search. James contends he maintained an expectation of privacy in Room 322 despite his absence. When moving to suppress evidence on the basis of an alleged unreasonable search, the defendant "has the...