U.S. v. Buchanan, 89-3536
| Citation | 910 F.2d 1571 |
| Decision Date | 31 July 1990 |
| Docket Number | No. 89-3536,89-3536 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Collin BUCHANAN, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (7th Circuit) |
Jeffrey Anderson, Asst. U.S. Atty., Madison, Wis., for plaintiff-appellee.
Donald J. Murphy, Madison, Wis., for defendant-appellant.
Before COFFEY and FLAUM, Circuit Judges, and PELL, Senior Circuit Judge.
In this case we are asked to decide whether police would inevitably have discovered cocaine stored in the appellant's hotel room. The facts of the case are these: on December 6, 1988, Kevin Evans was shot to death with a nine millimeter or .38 caliber handgun in Columbus, Ohio. Three witnesses were available to testify that the appellant in this case, Collin Buchanan, known to the witnesses as "Silver," was the assailant. Immediately after the shooting, Buchanan packed his belongings and took a taxicab from Columbus to Zanesville, Ohio. He told the cab driver that he planned to take an eastbound bus from Zanesville. Columbus police obtained an arrest warrant for Buchanan and filed a wanted person report with the National Crime Information Center. Buchanan already had a record as a felon convicted of drug offenses in the state of New York.
Buchanan came to the attention of the Madison, Wisconsin, police on December 23, 1988. A man named Lorenzo Phillips told police that a man (later identified as Buchanan) had a large amount of crack cocaine and was holding Phillips' girlfriend until she paid $500. Police found Buchanan, but the girl denied that she was being held against her will. A search of Buchanan's car failed to result in the discovery of either drugs or weapons.
On January 4, 1989, police were informed that a man matching Buchanan's description was selling cocaine out of his car in a parking lot, and that the seller wanted to trade cocaine for a nine millimeter handgun. Another tip about Buchanan was received on January 9. On January 11, 1989, Detective Pharo of the Madison police department sent Buchanan's fingerprints to the FBI Identification Office. The FBI identified Buchanan and informed the Madison police of the Ohio murder warrant.
Detective Pharo called the Columbus police to learn more about the warrant and about Buchanan. He was told that Buchanan had shot Evans with a nine millimeter handgun and that the motive for the shooting had been a $200 drug debt. Detective Pharo issued a bulletin about Buchanan to all Madison police on January 12.
In a short time, Buchanan's car was spotted. The police followed him to the West Towne Roadstar Inn, where the desk attendant confirmed that a man answering Buchanan's description was registered in the hotel under the name of Darryl Bailey. Officers took up a position in the room opposite Buchanan's and other officers secured the corridor. Detective Pharo asked the hotel manager to get Buchanan out of the room on a pretext. When Buchanan emerged into the hallway, he was arrested and the self-locking door to the room swung closed. The key to the room was clutched in Buchanan's hand. The police took the key from him and executed a quick sweep of the room to see if there was anyone else there. They found nothing.
Detective Pharo then asked Buchanan what he wanted done with his clothes. He said he would have someone pick them up the next day, but Pharo told him that no one else would be allowed into the room and that police would pack for him. Buchanan did not object to police handling his clothes, but he insisted on watching while they did so. While stuffing Buchanan's clothes into a duffle bag, officers discovered a three-beam scale of the type used in drug deals and small packets containing cocaine. The packing was stopped immediately while a search warrant was obtained. Only then was Buchanan informed of his Miranda rights.
The search conducted under the warrant revealed 125 grams of cocaine. As a result, Buchanan was charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized at the hotel room on grounds that it had been taken in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The magistrate heard evidence and recommended that the motion be denied on grounds that discovery through proper means was inevitable. The evidence was admitted at Buchanan's one-day jury trial, at which he was convicted. It was only after the trial that the district judge received Buchanan's objections to the magistrate's report and recommendation. She ruled that the objections were timely, and that the magistrate had not adequately developed the record on the question of inevitable discovery and remanded for the taking of additional evidence. After a supplemental hearing, the magistrate reached the same conclusion, and further found that Buchanan had freely consented to having the police remove his clothes from the room. This report and recommendation was accepted by the district court, which then sentenced Buchanan to forty-one months in prison. Buchanan filed a timely notice of appeal.
The issue in this appeal is whether the cocaine discovered when Buchanan's clothes were being packed would inevitably have been discovered through a search pursuant to a proper warrant. Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 443-45, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 2508-10, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984). To answer this question, we must answer two subsidiary questions: first, would the police have inevitably sought a search warrant for the room, and second, would a neutral magistrate have issued such a warrant. Because we answer both those questions in the affirmative, we hold that the motion to suppress evidence was properly denied, and we affirm the conviction.
The first question is an easy one; Buchanan was arrested for murder, and the murder weapon had not yet been found. The defendant was located in a hotel room which he occupied under an assumed name. The magistrate cited Ringel, Searches and Seizures, Arrests and Confessions (1988) for the...
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