United States v. Dargan

• Citation: 738 F.3d 643
• Decision Date: 24 December 2013
• Docket Number: No. 13–4171.,13–4171.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Reginald Duane DARGAN, Jr., Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (4th Circuit)

738 F.3d 643

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee,

v.Reginald Duane DARGAN, Jr., Defendant–Appellant.

No. 13–4171.

United States Court of Appeals,

Fourth Circuit.

Argued: Oct. 30, 2013.

Decided: Dec. 24, 2013.

ARGUED:Brian L. Stekloff, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellant. Benjamin M. Block, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF:Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, Sean Welsh, Legal Intern, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before: WILKINSON, AGEE, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge WILKINSON wrote the opinion, in which Judge AGEE and Judge KEENAN joined.

WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Reginald Dargan, Jr., was convicted by a jury of three counts arising from the armed robbery of a jewelry store. He now appeals his conviction, contending that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence seized pursuant to a warrant during a search of his residence. He also argues that testimony about out-of-court statements made by a co-conspirator was erroneously admitted in violation of both the Federal Rules of Evidence and the Confrontation Clause. For the following reasons, we reject Dargan's claims and affirm his conviction.

I.

Shortly after noon on March 30, 2011, three men robbed a jewelry store located in a mall in Columbia, Maryland. Two of the participants were armed with firearms, while the third carried a knife. After waiting for a customer to leave, one of the men detained a sales clerk at gunpoint. Another held a knife to the clerk's leg and forced him to dump a case of Rolex watches into a bag. Meanwhile, the remaining culprit restrained a second employee at the back of the store. Once the watch case was emptied, the three men hastily exited the mall. They escaped with over thirty men's Rolex watches, with a retail value of approximately $275,000.

The following day, the police issued a news release asking the public to submit information relevant to the investigation. The release contained images of the suspects captured by mall security cameras. Based on tips received, the authorities arrested three individuals: Deontaye Harvey, Aaron Pratt, and Gary Braxton. Officials soon doubted Braxton's involvement, however, and he was released. The investigation also implicated a fourth individual, nicknamed “Little Reggie,” who was not apprehended at that time.

Two months later, appellant Dargan was arrested in connection with the robbery. Police suspected that Dargan was in fact Little Reggie, the knife-wielding participant in the Columbia heist. Investigators subsequently obtained a search warrant for Dargan's residence. Attachment A to the warrant enumerated items subject to seizure, including, among other things, “[i]ndicia of occupancy.” J.A. 70. During the search, officers seized a purchase receipt for a Louis Vuitton belt. The receipt was found in a bag located on top of a dresser in Dargan's bedroom. It indicated that the belt cost $461.10 and that the buyer, who identified himself as “Regg Raxx,” purchased the belt with cash the day after the robbery.

On October 26, 2011, a federal grand jury returned an indictment against Dargan, Harvey, and Pratt. As relevant here, the indictment charged Dargan with conspiracy to interfere with, as well as actual interference with, interstate commerce by robbery in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1951. It also charged him with using and carrying a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c).

Prior to trial, Dargan moved to suppress the purchase receipt for the Louis Vuitton belt seized during the search of his residence. The district court found that the receipt did not fall under the terms of Attachment A to the search warrant, but that the seizure was nevertheless justified under the plain-view exception to the warrant requirement.

The government also filed a pretrial motion to admit testimony regarding out-of-court statements made by Dargan's co-defendant, Harvey, to a cellmate, Zachary Shanaberger. The conversation took place after Braxton had been released and Dargan arrested. Specifically, the government intended to elicit testimony regarding Harvey's alleged confession to robbing a jewelry store in the Columbia Mall with two co-conspirators and his disclosure that they were all imprisoned in the same facility at the time of the conversation. In his statements to Shanaberger, Harvey did not identify the third participant—whom the prosecution contended was Dargan—by name.

The government argued that Harvey's comments were admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 804(b)(3), which provides an exception to the general prohibition against hearsay for statements against interest. Dargan not only contested this assertion, but further contended that the introduction of the statements at trial would violate his Confrontation Clause rights. Ruling from the bench, the district court rejected each of Dargan's objections and granted the government's motion.

At Dargan's trial, the prosecution both introduced the Louis Vuitton receipt and called Shanaberger as a witness. It also provided independent evidence directly linking Dargan to the Columbia robbery. For instance, the government called two witnesses who each identified Dargan as one of the culprits depicted in the footage taken by mall surveillance cameras. One of the witnesses was Dargan's own godmother, who had known him for over thirteen years.

The prosecution also introduced several text messages recovered from Dargan's phone pursuant to a search warrant. The messages were exchanged between Dargan and Harvey during the direct lead-up to the robbery. The conversation ceased during the actual commission of the crime. Shortly before 11:15 that morning, Harvey texted Dargan to “Get dressed .... We on. Da way.” J.A. 620. At 11:16, he further instructed Dargan to “Bring da knife out.” Id. Finally, at 11:43, Dargan texted Harvey to inform him that “We out front.” Id.

On November 8, 2012, the jury found Dargan guilty of each of the three counts listed above. The district court sentenced him to 135 months of incarceration, in addition to a period of supervised release and restitution. This appeal followed.

II.

Dargan first contends that the seizure of the Louis Vuitton belt receipt violated the Fourth Amendment because the receipt did not fall under any of the items enumerated in Attachment A, which delineated the warrant's scope. The Fourth Amendment provides that “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” In interpreting the Fourth Amendment, the thought of unfettered police discretion is unthinkable, and any practice of minute judicial management is impractical, and the question thus must always be where the balance lies.

A.

The last clause of the Fourth Amendment contains a “particularity requirement,” which “is fulfilled when the warrant identifies the items to be seized by their relation to designated crimes and when the description of the items leaves nothing to the discretion of the officer executing the warrant.” United States v. Williams, 592 F.3d 511, 519 (4th Cir.2010). The Framers included this provision in order to end the practice, “abhorred by the colonists,” of issuing “general warrants.” Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 467, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). The requirement is designed to preclude broadly-phrased warrants from authorizing officers to conduct “exploratory rummaging in a person's belongings.” Andresen v. Maryland, 427 U.S. 463, 480, 96 S.Ct. 2737, 49 L.Ed.2d 627 (1976) (internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, when executing a warrant, officers are limited by its terms. Williams, 592 F.3d at 519.

Nevertheless, a warrant is not intended to impose a “constitutional strait jacket” on investigating officers. United States v. Dornhofer, 859 F.2d 1195, 1198 (4th Cir.1988) (internal quotation marks omitted). Courts must refrain from interpreting warrant terms in a “hypertechnical” manner, and should instead employ a “commonsense and realistic” approach. Williams, 592 F.3d at 519 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (using similar language with respect to judicial review of affidavits). This rule of construction strikes a middle ground by ensuring that warrants serve their central purpose—precluding officers from conducting fishing expeditions into the private affairs of others—while simultaneously preserving the flexibility of law enforcement to adapt to the unforeseen circumstances that necessarily arise in an investigation predicated on incomplete information.

Interpreting warrants in a commonsense manner serves the further, significant purpose of encouraging officers to obtain judicial approval prior to conducting a search. United States v. Phillips, 588 F.3d 218, 223 (4th Cir.2009). This court, along with many others, has stated a strong preference for officers to obtain a warrant prior to intruding on constitutionally protected domains. United States v. Srivastava, 540 F.3d 277, 288 (4th Cir.2008). A warrant cabins executive discretion, gives the imprimatur of lawful authority to potentially intrusive police conduct, and helps to ensure that valuable evidence is not later excluded as a result of an illicit search. See Gates, 462 U.S. at 236, 103 S.Ct. 2317. A “grudging or negative attitude by reviewing courts towards warrants” is inconsistent with this approach. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

An overly stringent rule of construction would encourage warrantless...