Hampleton v. U.S., No. 07-CF-343.

Decision Date23 December 2010
Docket NumberNo. 07-CF-343.
PartiesCasey HAMPLETON, Appellant, v. UNITED STATES, Appellee.
CourtD.C. Court of Appeals

Corrine Beckwith, Public Defender Service, with whom James Klein, Public Defender Service, was on the brief, for appellant.

Amanda Winchester, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Ronald C. Machen Jr., United States Attorney, and Roy W. McLeese III, Leutrell M.C. Osborne, and Steven B. Wasserman, Assistant United States Attorneys, were on the brief, for appellee.

Before REID and FISHER, Associate Judges, and KING, Senior Judge.

FISHER, Associate Judge:

After the trial court denied his motions to suppress, a jury convicted appellant Casey Hampleton of three counts of armed robbery, three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, and one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.1 On appeal, he argues that show-up identifications and certain physical evidence should have been suppressed as the fruit of an illegal seizure. He further argues that his convictions for possession of a firearm during a crime of violence should merge. We agree with appellant's merger argument, but otherwise affirm.

I. Overview of the Case

On May 11, 2006, three people were robbed at gunpoint by five men who were traveling in a stolen car. The robbers fled the scene in the car, were chased by police, and crashed into a tree before bailing out and scattering into the surrounding neighborhood. Approximately thirty minutes after the robbery, a police officer saw Casey Hampleton walking up North Capitol Street a quarter of a mile from the scene of the bailout, talking on a cell phone. Because Mr. Hampleton matched a general description of the robbers, the officer performed a Terry stop.2 Soon thereafter, Mr. Hampleton was arrested and charged in the robbery. The jury in Mr. Hampleton's first trial deadlocked as to all counts, but in November 2006 a second jury found him guilty of the charges listed above. This appeal followed.

II. Factual and Procedural Background
A. The Evidence at the Suppression Hearing

Viewed in the light most favorable to sustaining the trial court's ruling, 3 the evidence showed the following.4 At approximately 10:00 p.m. on May 11, 2006, Silas Eng, Nathan Ford, and Christopher Kastronis were walking to a nightclub in northeast Washington, D.C., when at least five men jumped out of a black Jeep Liberty and robbed them at gunpoint. The robbers took cash from Mr. Eng and Mr. Ford, and cash, a cell phone, and a bank card from Mr. Kastronis. They also attempted to force Mr. Kastronis into their Jeep at gunpoint, in order to take him to an ATM to withdraw money. Fearing the arrival of the police, however, the robbers soon abandoned this effort and drove off. Mr. Eng, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Kastronis ran to the nightclub and reported the robbery to two police officers who were parked outside.

The officers broadcast a lookout for five or six "black males" in "dark clothing" riding in a black Jeep Liberty with Virginia tags. Within "two, three minutes" of the lookout, Officer Michael Jenkins and his partner spotted the Jeep Liberty and attempted to stop it. The occupants of the Jeep "continued at a high rate of speed in [an] attempt to flee," and the officers chased them for "five minutes or less." The Jeep then crashed into a tree near Second and Taylor Streets, N.E., and the officers saw five suspects bail out of the vehicle and flee. One suspect "ran into the woods" while four others ran off "in abunch" toward the grounds of the nearby Archbishop Carroll High School.

Officers "cordoned off" a perimeter around the area, and additional police officers responded "to canvass the area." At Mr. Hampleton's suppression hearing, the government played a recording of radio broadcasts related to the police search. The trial court noted for the record that the recording sounded "fairly chaotic" and that there were "different officers on the scene ... chasing ... several individuals in the Archbishop Carroll location who seem to be moving in different directions." At the end of the recording, "Officer Antoine's voice [came] over the radio."

Another one of the officers, Officer Neffon, was stationed on Scale Gate Road Bridge overlooking North Capitol Street. Officer Neffon broadcast a lookout that she had observed "black males ... wearing dark clothing" attempting to climb over the fence of Archbishop Carroll High School from the school grounds onto North Capitol Street. She further noted that, after seeing her cruiser, the individuals abandoned their attempt and retreated back inside the school grounds.5

Officer Lennox Antoine heard Officer Neffon's broadcast as he was driving in a marked police cruiser southbound down North Capitol Street in response to the robbery lookout. Within a few seconds of Officer Neffon's broadcast and approximately 10 to 15 minutes after the bailout,6Officer Antoine saw Mr. Hampleton walking in the 3700 block of North Capitol Street. Mr. Hampleton was on the other side of North Capitol Street from the Archbishop Carroll High School, near the exit ramp to Scale Gate Road. He was walking northbound up North Capitol Street toward Fort Drive. At Mr. Hampleton's suppression hearing, Officer Antoine testified that, because "[t]here's no sidewalk on North Capitol Street," Mr. Hampleton was walking along a "grassy area." Officer Antoine also testified that he did not see anyone else in or around the area. Mr. Hampleton was wearing dark clothing and appeared to be talking on a cell phone.

Upon seeing Mr. Hampleton, Officer Antoine "immediately pulled to the curb ... put [his] spotlight on him ... exit[ed the] vehicle [and] order[ed] him to lay on the ground." Mr. Hampleton complied, and Officer Antoine handcuffed him and patted him down for weapons. Officer Antoine then placed his hand on Mr. Hampleton's chest and concluded that "his heart rate was not normal" and that "he was breathing heavy," which led Officer Antoine to believe that Mr. Hampleton had been running.7 In Mr. Hampleton's pockets, Officer Antoine found "approximately four cell phones," including one belonging to Mr. Kastronis, and Mr. Kastronis's cash card. When Officer Antoine asked where the card came from, Mr. Hampleton stated that he "found it."

Officer Antoine then radioed the police dispatcher for further information on Mr. Hampleton and discovered that he was "wanted from the Fifth District on two outstanding warrants for robbery." Two officers who had witnessed the crash of the Jeep came to the scene, and they each identified Mr. Hampleton as one of the suspects who had bailed out and fled from the crash.8 Mr. Hampleton was placedunder arrest. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Eng, Mr. Ford, and Mr. Kastronis were brought to see Mr. Hampleton, and Mr. Eng and Mr. Ford identified him as one of the robbers.

B. The Trial Court's Ruling

Before ruling on the motion to suppress, the trial court noted for the record Mr. Hampleton's location at the time of the stop. Relying on a diagram used to illustrate the testimony of the police officers, the court stated: "Mr. Hampleton [was] stopped about a quarter of a mile from the incident of the crash" and the closest residential areas were "up where the crash was, about a quarter of a mile away," and "down at the corner of Michigan Avenue and North Capitol." The court reasoned that "concerns about general lookouts" were not the same in this case as they would be in a case where a suspect was standing "on the corner of 16th and Columbia [Road], [and] the lookout could fit any other person." The trial court also commented on Mr. Hampleton's location in relation to Officer Neffon, and his possible motivations for walking north on North Capitol Street: "Mr. Hampleton was found to the west of the ... Archbishop Carroll complex heading northbound, but he's getting away from the officer that's stationed on Scale Gate Road. He has no other way to go."

In evaluating the legality of the stop, the court took into account the rapidly evolving nature of the situation:

It's chaotic .... there's been a high speed chase, there's been a crash, there's people responding to the crash, there are at least five people that bail out. There's police officers setting up a perimeter around the area.... [I]t's one thing for us to sit here months after [the] incident with nothing else to do but decipher this episode in every single possible frame, and it's another thing to be there when all this chaos is breaking loose.... The law requires that I look at it the way that a reasonable police officer would....

The trial court ruled that Officer Antoine had reasonable articulable suspicion to stop Mr. Hampleton. Nevertheless, the court suppressed the cell phones and credit card that Officer Antoine removed from Mr. Hampleton on the grounds that the pat down exceeded the scope of a valid frisk under Terry. However, the court declined to suppress the show-up identifications and other physical evidence, holding that "[e]verything else related to the stop, everything else that was the fruit of the stop, is appropriate."

III. The Denial of the Motions to Suppress

Our review of a trial court's denial of a motion to suppress is limited. Jones v. United States, 972 A.2d 821, 824 (D.C.2009); see also Brown v. United States, 590 A.2d 1008, 1020 (D.C.1991). We "take care both to review findings of historical fact only for clear error and to give due weight to inferences drawn from those facts by resident judges and local law enforcement officers." Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). Moreover, "[w]e view the evidence presented at the suppression hearing in the light most favorable to the party prevailing below, and we draw all reasonable inferences in that party's favor." Womack v. United States, 673 A.2d 603, 607 (D.C.1996) (citingPeay v. United States, 597 A.2d 1318, 1320 (D.C.1991) (en banc)). Nevertheless, we review the...

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