U.S. v. Epps
| Decision Date | 29 May 1992 |
| Docket Number | No. 91-5884,91-5884 |
| Citation | 983 F.2d 1058 |
| Parties | NOTICE: Fourth Circuit I.O.P. 36.6 states that citation of unpublished dispositions is disfavored except for establishing res judicata, estoppel, or the law of the case and requires service of copies of cited unpublished dispositions of the Fourth Circuit. UNITED STATES of AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kerry EPPS, Defendant-Appellant. . Submitted: |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia, at Roanoke. Samuel G. Wilson, District Judge. (CR-91-64-R)
Jeffrey D. Rudd, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellant.
E. Montgomery Tucker, United States Attorney, Donald R. Wolthuis, Assistant United States Attorney, Roanoke, Virginia, for Appellee.
Before RUSSELL, PHILLIPS, and LUTTIG, Circuit Judges.
Kerry Epps appeals from the district court's order denying his Motion to Suppress Evidence. After a jury trial, Epps was found guilty of possessing with intent to distribute five or more grams of crack cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. # 8E8E # 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B) (West 1981 & Supp. 1992). He is serving a seventy-five month prison term, after which he will be subject to five years of supervised release. Finding no error in the district court's suppression decision, we affirm.
In the early morning of April 4, 1991, Roanoke City police officers received a police bulletin from the county police department asking them to be on the lookout for a black Hyundai carrying several black men who might be carrying handguns. The men were believed to have been involved in an unspecified disturbance at a county motel. Acting on this information, city officers Oakes and Lovern stopped the black Hyundai in which Epps was a back-seat passenger. All three occupants exited the vehicle.
Sergeant Hurley, who arrived on the scene along with other officers after the stop, procured Epps's social security number, date of birth, and other particulars, and ran a DMV check after Epps was unable to provide identification; that check revealed that Epps had previously been charged for carrying a concealed weapon. Hurley thereupon asked Epps to place his hands against the car for purposes of conducting a pat-down frisk for weapons. Epps briefly complied, but then immediately ran away. Several officers pursued him, and in the course of that chase, Officer Fuller found a dark athletic jacket on the ground which bore the word "Bears" in red lettering on the back. Epps had been observed wearing the same jacket earlier. Inside the pockets of that jacket, Fuller found $3439 in cash, a plastic bag containing white cubes covered with a white powdery substance, which later proved to be thirteen pieces of crack cocaine, and a second plastic bag containing pills.
Epps was indicted for violating 21 U.S.C.A. # 8E8E # 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B). He unsuccessfully moved to suppress the evidence found in his coat, and was later found guilty and convicted for the indicted offenses. This appeal followed.
The district court denied Epps's suppression motion after determining that no Fourth Amendment seizure had occurred. We review this determination under the "clearly erroneous" standard. See United States v. Wilson, 895 F.2d 168 (4th Cir. 1990).
Epps concedes on appeal that the stop of the car and brief questioning of the occupants were warranted under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1 (1968). He also concedes that, as a general rule, police officers may conduct a frisk for weapons in the course of a Terry stop if they reasonably suspect that the person stopped is armed, but argues that Sergeant Hurley had no reasonable suspicion here, thus invalidating the request for a weapons frisk and...
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Farrell v. Detavis
...government's argument that defendant's flight from agent removed thecase from Fourth Amendment's purview); but cf. United States v. Epps, 983 F.2d 1058 (4th Cir. 1992) (finding that suspect was no longer seized while in flight from initial seizure). Officers Detavis and Luna's argument that......
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United States v. Davis
...after he placed it on the ground underneath the vehicle. Although unpublished, the Fourth Circuit's opinion in United States v. Epps, 983 F.2d 1058, 1992 WL 387568, at *2 (4th Cir. 1992), provides the closest case for comparison. There, the defendant was a passenger in a vehicle that was st......