U.S. v. Mason
| Decision Date | 27 August 1992 |
| Docket Number | 91-3001,Nos. 90-3267,s. 90-3267 |
| Citation | 966 F.2d 1488 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Appellee/Cross-Appellant, v. Darnell L. MASON, Appellant/Cross-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit |
Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (Criminal No. 89-00479-01).
William J. Garber (appointed by the Court), with whom Dennis M. Hart was on the brief, for appellant in No. 90-3267 and cross-appellee in No. 91-3001.
Robert De La Cruz, Asst. U.S. Atty., with whom Jay B. Stephens, U.S. Atty., and John R. Fisher, Thomas C. Black and Jeffrey R. Ragsdale, Asst. U.S. Attys., were on the brief, for appellee in No. 90-3267 and cross-appellant in No. 91-3001.
Before WALD, SILBERMAN and HENDERSON, Circuit Judges.
Opinion for the court filed by Circuit Judge KAREN LeCRAFT HENDERSON.
Opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part from the rationale by Circuit Judge WALD.
In this appeal, Darnell Mason challenges the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence seized during a search of his apartment. Cross-appellant United States challenges the district court's downward departure from the United States Sentencing Guidelines (guidelines) under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b). We affirm the district court's denial of Mason's suppression motion but reverse the district court's departure from the guidelines and remand for resentencing.
According to the facts found by the district court, on the night of October 25, 1989, at approximately 9:15, appellant Darnell Mason returned with his girlfriend to his apartment located on the second floor of an apartment building at 3017 Naylor Road, S.E., Washington, D.C. As Mason reached to open the front door of the apartment, he noticed that the door was damaged. Two masked gunmen opened the door from the inside and demanded money from him. Mason's girlfriend immediately fled; Mason tried to escape by running up the building's stairs. The gunmen shot at Mason, striking him in the lower leg. Although wounded, Mason was able to make his way to the third floor. There, the occupant of a third-floor apartment who had heard the shouting and the gunshots opened the door of his apartment, saw Mason and pulled him inside to safety. The neighbor then called 911 to request an ambulance, advising the dispatcher that shots had been fired.
At approximately 9:30 p.m., the police arrived at the neighbor's apartment where they found Mason. Mason gave them the details of the incident. On learning that the gunmen had come out of Mason's apartment and that the shooting had occurred in the corridor outside the apartment, the police proceeded to Mason's apartment to investigate. In the meantime, Mason was taken to Southeast Hospital.
When the police reached Mason's apartment, they noticed that the front door was ajar and heard noises from within. They entered the apartment and conducted a sweep of it to determine if the assailants or any additional victims were there. Suppression Hearing Transcript at 26-27 (Jan. 8, 1990). They did not find anyone in the apartment and determined that the source of the noise was either a radio or a television.
The police then secured the apartment and awaited the arrival of Officer Rupert Knowles, a crime scene investigator. Knowles arrived at approximately 9:45 p.m. and, after being briefed by the officers on the scene, asked whether they had obtained Mason's consent to search the apartment. They told him they had not and Knowles asked Detective Gatewood to go to the hospital to seek Mason's consent.
At approximately 10:45 p.m., Gatewood advised Knowles by radio that Mason had consented in writing to the search. Knowles then searched the apartment for any evidence identifying the gunmen. During the search, Knowles discovered a plastic bag containing what he believed to be crack protruding from under a pillow on the top bunk of a bunk bed. Knowles also found a locked safe, 74 baggies containing a greenish substance and an ashtray containing traces of white powder and a single-edge razor blade. Knowles did not attempt to open the safe; instead he advised Gatewood that they needed a warrant or Mason's consent to open it. Because of what appeared to be a large quantity of illegal drugs, Gatewood requested the assistance of a vice officer. Vice Officer Charles Porter responded to the scene. When Porter arrived at the apartment, he saw Mason's sister, Jacqueline Tate, who had come to the apartment after hearing of her brother's injury. Later, at an unspecified time, Mason telephoned the apartment from the hospital and Tate answered; Porter asked to speak to Mason. Porter told Mason that the police had found a safe and wanted to open it. Porter advised Mason that the police could either obtain a warrant or Mason could give his consent. After the telephone conversation, Porter and Gatewood went to the hospital to seek Mason's consent and the key to the safe.
At approximately 11:00 p.m., Porter and Gatewood arrived at the hospital and found Mason, whose wound was still untreated, seated in a wheelchair at the registration counter. 1 Porter and Gatewood took Mason to another room where they showed him the consent form and explained it to him. Mason signed the form and gave them the key to the safe. Porter and Gatewood returned to the apartment. They opened the safe and found over $1000 in cash and several zip-lock bags containing a white rock substance which later tested positive for cocaine.
A grand jury subsequently indicted Mason for possession of more than fifty grams of crack with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a) and (b)(1)(A)(iii). Thereafter, Mason moved to suppress the evidence obtained during the search of the apartment. After several days of testimony, the district court denied the motion. As to the police's initial entry of Mason's apartment, the district court, while recognizing the preference under the fourth amendment for a warrant authorizing the entry of a premises, held that the police "had ample justification for entering the apartment without a warrant" to conduct a "protective sweep" under the doctrine of "exigent circumstances." Supp. Memo at 8-9. The district court noted:
The testimony elicited from both government and defense witnesses makes it clear that within minutes after arrival and hearing noises from within the apartment the officers entered the defendant's apartment with firearms drawn, quickly searched to see if any of the perpetrators were there, and promptly exited. According to all the testimony, the officers remained in the apartment for only five to ten minutes. Such an intrusion in light of the existing exigency does not constitute a Fourth Amendment violation.
The district court also rejected Mason's claims that his consent was invalid because 1) he was unable to understand the consent form due to his lack of education and 2) his "consent was not knowing and voluntary since he was in pain and had not been provided with medical attention until after both consent forms had been signed." Id. at 10. Regarding Mason's first contention, the district court concluded that Mason understood the form because, although he had only "a tenth grade education," he was "of better than average intelligence" and had "passed a written driver's license examination." Id. at 11.
Regarding Mason's second contention, the district court concluded that, while Mason "may have been in pain, it is clear that he was alert and capable of making the decisions he did." Id. According to the district court, Mason was coherent because at the time he was taken from the apartment house to the hospital, he "had the presence of mind to toss his keys to a friend and ... make certain requests of her." Id. The district court also noted the telephone call Mason made to his apartment during which he talked with his sister and Officer Porter as further evidence of Mason's capacity to give a voluntary consent. Id. at 11-12. The district court denied Mason's motion to suppress, Mason entered a conditional guilty plea under Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2) and he now brings this appeal.
Under the guidelines, Mason's total offense level was 30 and his criminal history category was V. This combination results in a term of imprisonment ranging from 151 to 188 months. The district court, however, found that the "extraordinary" manner in which Mason was apprehended, i.e., Mason was a shooting victim and the shooting had "provided a certain amount of punishment to him," was a "circumstance ... not adequately taken into consideration by the Sentencing Commission in formulating the guidelines." Sentencing Memorandum (Sent. Memo ) at 2 (citing 18 U.S.C. § 3553(b)). The district court thus departed downward and sentenced Mason to a term of imprisonment of 120 months, the statutory minimum. 2 The government cross appeals the downward departure.
We begin with the district court's denial of Mason's motion to suppress. Mason argues that his rights under the fourth amendment were violated because 1) the initial warrantless entry into his apartment cannot be justified under the exigent circumstances exception to the warrant requirement, 2) the illegal initial entry tainted his subsequent consent according to Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963), and its progeny and 3) his consents to the search of his apartment and ultimately to the search of the safe were not knowing, voluntary and intelligent. 3 Brief of Mason at 29-30.
We first address whether the initial entry by the police violated the fourth amendment. The Supreme Court has consistently held that a warrantless search of a residence does not violate the fourth amendment when exigent circumstances exist. Mincey v. Arizona...
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...even though he consented while lying untreated in a hospital emergency room after suffering a gunshot wound. United States v. Mason, 966 F.2d 1488, 1494 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 113 S.Ct. 829, 121 L.Ed.2d 699 12 Additionally, as Christian's subsequent medical history bears ou......
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