U.S. v. Campbell

• Decision Date: 10 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-60243,98-60243
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Billy Leon CAMPBELL, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

Page 345

178 F.3d 345

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Billy Leon CAMPBELL, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 98-60243.

United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

June 10, 1999.

Paul David Roberts, Asst. U.S. Atty., Calvin D. Buchanan, Oxford, MS, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Ronald W. Lewis, Oxford, MS, for Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi.

Before JONES and STEWART, Circuit Judges, and DUPLANTIER, ^* District Judge.

EDITH H. JONES, Circuit Judge:

Campbell pled guilty to armed bank robbery, use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and two counts of obstruction of commerce by robbery, on the condition that he could challenge the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence. On appeal, he argues that there were insufficient grounds for an investigatory detention and its successive steps: being told to lie prone, being handcuffed, being frisked, and having several objects removed from his pocket. Alternatively, he argues that his detention constituted an arrest unsupported by probable cause. We conclude that, under the circumstances, the officers' conduct was reasonable.

I.

On the morning of July 31, 1997, a lone black male robbed a bank in Olive Branch, Mississippi. In the course of the robbery, he pointed a handgun at the teller whom he asked for money. The robber was described as being in his twenties or early thirties, about 6'1" tall, 155 pounds, with long hair and a dark complexion. He escaped with $3,365 in what witnesses described as a late 1980s, black Chevrolet Cavalier with Tennessee license plate 600TTP.

The next day, FBI agent Lent Rice learned from Memphis police that the license plate had expired, and that the person to whom it had last been registered said it was now in the possession of Michael Campbell (the defendant's brother), who lived at 4544 Fontaine Place, in Olive Branch. At about 5:00 P.M., Agent Rice went to that address with Detective Cleates Oliver of the Olive Branch Police Department. When they arrived, they saw the Cavalier with the same Tennessee license plate parked in the carport next to the house. They set up surveillance a block away and called for backup. Sergeant Scott Gentry arrived to assist in the surveillance. He was told that they were surveilling a possible armed robbery suspect who was armed, given the description of the robber, told that the car in the carport was the getaway vehicle, and told that Michael Campbell was the suspect.

Within minutes, three black males emerged from the house and appeared to be getting into the car. The surveilling officers moved in to stop their departure. Sergeant Gentry got to the driveway first. By then, Michael Campbell and another man were already in the car. Billy Campbell was still walking towards the driver's side of the car. With his gun drawn, Gentry ordered all three men to put their hands up. Moving towards Billy Campbell, Gentry told him to get on the ground. As Campbell did this, Gentry looked to the two men in the car and told them to keep their hands visible. When Agent Rice and Detective Oliver approached the men in the car, Gentry turned his attention back to Billy Campbell, who had complied with his order to lie down on the concrete surface of the carport.

Billy Campbell matched the description of the bank robber: he was 24 years old, 6'1" tall, 160 pounds, with a dark complexion and shoulder-length hair. Gentry considered this a high-crime neighborhood and noted that there were people in nearby yards, as well as two women and a small child under the carport. Gentry holstered his weapon, handcuffed Campbell behind his back, and frisked him. Gentry ran his hands along Campbell's body, and around the waistband, rolling Campbell to the left and right side to frisk his pockets. In Campbell's right front pants pocket, Gentry felt a large bulge. Fearing that it might be "some type of weapon," Gentry called Detective Oliver over. Gentry then reached into the pocket, pulled its contents out, and laid them on the ground. The contents comprised a large wad of money (more than $1,400), a gold cardboard jewelry box containing a gold chain, and some change.

Meanwhile, Agent Rice had been dealing with Michael Campbell. Rice asked Michael Campbell to get out of the car and immediately handcuffed him, placed him on the ground, and frisked him. (Detective Oliver asked the third man, who was too short to meet the bank robber's description, to get out of the car and sit down on the carport's concrete surface.) Michael Campbell told Rice that he had been in jail the previous day. Someone contacted the DeSoto County Sheriff's Department, which confirmed within 10 to 25 minutes that Michael Campbell had been in their custody at the time of the bank robbery. Michael Campbell's handcuffs were removed.

During the time that Michael Campbell's alibi was being checked, Detective Oliver took the items from Billy Campbell's pocket to his car. Within a few minutes, Assistant Police Chief Hal Pino arrived. Pino checked the $20 bills and found that three of them matched the serial numbers on the list of "bait bills" that the bank teller had given the robber. During the time it took to check the bills, Billy Campbell was left handcuffed. ¹ After the bait bills had been identified and Michael Campbell's alibi was confirmed, Billy Campbell was told he was being held on suspicion of bank robbery, taken to a squad car, and advised of his rights.

Billy Campbell later confessed to the bank robbery as well as several other armed robberies in the area in the weeks before the bank robbery. A consent search of the house on Fontaine Place (which was owned by the Campbells' mother) revealed a hardhat, goggles, and plastic hair net matching those worn by the bank robber. Mrs. Campbell later located the handgun that had been used in the string of robberies and turned it over to the police.

Before trial, Campbell moved to suppress the physical evidence obtained from the stop. After a hearing where three of the officers testified, the district court denied the motion to suppress, finding that the officers had reasonable suspicion to detain the men getting into the car, that their conduct was reasonable under the circumstances, and that it did not exceed the bounds of an investigative detention.

II.

The "reasonableness of an investigatory stop and frisk" is reviewed de novo. United States v. Michelletti, 13 F.3d 838, 841 (5th Cir.1994) (en banc). Yet the evidence is reviewed "in the light most favorable to the government as the prevailing party," and the denial of the motion to suppress will be upheld "if there is any reasonable view of the evidence to support it." Id. (internal quotation omitted).

III.

There is no doubt that the officers had reasonable suspicion to make an investigatory stop of Campbell. "[I]f police have a reasonable suspicion, grounded in specific and articulable facts, that a person they encounter was involved in or is wanted in connection with a completed felony, then a Terry stop may be made to investigate that suspicion." United States v. Hensley, 469 U.S. 221, 229, 105 S.Ct. 675, 680, 83 L.Ed.2d 604 (1985). Campbell matched the physical description of the bank robber from the day before and was approaching a car that matched a detailed description of the getaway vehicle and bore the same license plate. These facts were sufficient to warrant further investigation.

In the course of that investigation, the officers had two goals: to investigate and to protect themselves during their investigation. See Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 23, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1881, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) ("[I]n...