U.S. v. Davis
| Decision Date | 26 November 2008 |
| Docket Number | Criminal Action No. 5:08-cr-00103-01. |
| Citation | 588 F.Supp.2d 693 |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of West Virginia |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff, v. Teddy Dean DAVIS, Defendant. |
Erik S. Goes, U.S. Attorney's Office, Charleston, WV, for Plaintiff.
Before the Court is Defendant Teddy Dean Davis's Motion to Suppress Evidence [Docket 47]. By Order of Reference entered May 7, 2008, pretrial motions, including the pending motion, were designated for referral to United States Magistrate Judge R. Clarke VanDervort for submission of proposed findings and recommendations (PF & R) in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(B). Magistrate Judge VanDervort held an evidentiary hearing on Defendant's motion on July 29, 2008, and filed his PF & R on October 9, 2008. In that filing, the magistrate judge recommended that this Court deny Defendant's suppression motion in its entirety.
The Court is not required to review, under a de novo or any other standard, the factual or legal conclusions of the magistrate judge as to those portions of the findings or recommendation to which no objections are addressed. Thomas v. Arn, 474 U.S. 140, 150, 106 S.Ct. 466, 88 L.Ed.2d 435 (1985). In addition, this Court need not conduct a de novo review when a party "makes general and conclusory objections that do not direct the Court to a specific error in the magistrate's proposed findings and recommendations." Orpiano v. Johnson, 687 F.2d 44, 47 (4th Cir.1982). Here, objections to Magistrate Judge VanDervort's PF & R were due by October 27, 2008. Defendant filed timely objections to the PF & R on October 15, 2008.
The events preceding Defendant's arrest, which form the basis for his suppression motion, are subject to considerable dispute. Based on the averments of Defendant, the testimony at the July 29 hearing, and the findings of Magistrate Judge VanDervort, the relevant factual background is as follows.1
On April 10, 2008, Special Agent Michael A. Yansick of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) received a call from an agent in the FBI's Pittsburgh Division headquarters. The Pittsburgh agent informed Special Agent Yansick that a Kentucky resident reported that a person applied for a credit card using the Kentucky resident's name and that the address on the credit card application was room 107 of the Holiday Inn in Beckley, West Virginia. Special Agent Yansick contacted the Beckley Police Department and arranged to meet Corporal James H. Blume, III, at the Holiday Inn to investigate. Upon arriving at the hotel, Special Agent Yansick and Officer Blume spoke with the manager at the front desk. The manager showed them a copy of the room registration form. The form indicated that the room was rented in one name, but that the name had been changed thereafter to that of the Kentucky resident. The manager proceeded to escort Special Agent Yansick and Officer Blume to room 107. The officers knocked on the door and received no response. The manager opened the door for them and they entered the room announcing that they were police officers. The officers' stated purpose for entering the room was to check for the presence of the suspects and to ensure that they were not destroying evidence.2 The officers testified that they were in the room approximately ten to fifteen seconds and that no evidence was observed or seized at that time. The manager's testimony differed somewhat, and he estimated that the officers were in the room "three to five minutes at tops." (Tr. at 14.)3 There is no indication from the manager's testimony that any evidence was taken on April 10. The officers left the room and informed the manager that they would return the following day.
The next day, April 11, Special Agent Yansick returned to the Holiday Inn accompanied by his partner, Special Agent Terry Schwartz, and Detectives Frank Priddy and Samuel L. McClure, Jr., of the Beckley Police Department. The officers went to the front desk and learned that the suspects continued to rent the room and were believed to be on the property at that time. The four officers proceeded to room 107. Special Agent Yansick knocked once. Detective Priddy knocked a second time much louder. From inside the room a voice asked, "Who is it?" Special Agent Yansick and Detective Priddy answered "FBI" and "Police," respectively. (Tr. at 37, 140.) Defendant opened the door slightly with the security latch engaged and asked the officers what they wanted. Special Agent Yansick and Detective Priddy showed Defendant their credentials and asked to come in and speak with Defendant. Defendant closed the door, disengaged the security latch, and reopened the door. The officers then entered the room.4
What transpired immediately after the officers entered the suite differs in the accounts of the officers and Defendant. According to Defendant, Special Agent Yansick crossed the threshold and remained in the sitting room with Defendant. The three other officer immediately "went running to the back bedroom." (Tr. at 180.) Detective McClure allegedly had his firearm drawn. Defendant claims that the allegedly stolen and/or fraudulently obtained mail—the evidence Defendant seeks to suppress—was hidden in the hallway closet. Detective Priddy opened the closet twice, according to Defendant, removing the mail the second time. Defendant states that at no time did he consent to a search of the hotel suite until after the incriminating evidence had been discovered.
The officers' separate descriptions of their entry into the room were substantially similar. According to the officers, they entered the suite and Special Agent Yansick asked if there was anyone else in the hotel. Defendant acknowledged that there was a second person present and gestured toward the bedroom. At that point, Special Agent Schwartz and Detectives Priddy and McClure went to the back bedroom for the purpose of "officer safety"—that is, to ensure that the second suspect was not a threat. (Tr. at 112, 142.) The officers observed Brian Hoffman under a sheet in one of the room's two beds. He cooperated when they told him to show his hands. The officers all claim to have observed a blue canvas satchel and a trash can overflowing with mail at or near the foot of the bed occupied by Hoffman. The mail, which appeared to be addressed to many different people, was spilling out onto the floor. A computer also was observed at or near the foot of the unoccupied bed.
The testimony given by the officers and Defendant are substantially similar as to other events that occurred shortly after the entry. Special Agent Yansick asked Defendant his name, and Defendant replied with the name of the Kentucky resident. Special Agent Yansick responded that he knew that to be false because he had spoken with the Kentucky resident earlier. Defendant responded by giving Special Agent Yansick another false name, that of his brother. Soon thereafter, Hoffman, still in the bedroom, told the officers that Defendant's name was Teddy Davis. Upon being confronted with his real name, Defendant admitted his identity. A search of National Crime Information Center records revealed that Defendant was the subject of an outstanding warrant from Oklahoma and that Oklahoma intended to extradite Defendant.
After learning of the outstanding warrant, the officers asked for Defendant and Hoffman's permission to search the suite and their automobile. Both consented. The subsequent searches produced no evidence, aside from the previously discovered mail and computer. Defendant was then placed under arrest for the fugitive warrant. He was read his Miranda rights at the police station and invoked his right to remain silent.
On June 3, 2008, a grand jury returned a superseding indictment against Defendant and Hoffman for events occurring between April 5 and April 11, 2008. The seven-count indictment charges both defendants with three counts of mail fraud in violation 18 U.S.C. § § 1341; three counts of aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1028A; and one count of possession of stolen mail in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1708.
Defendant's motion seeks the suppression of all phone logs, United States mail, credit card applications, and other physical evidence seized from Defendant's hotel room on April 11, 2008. Defendant also moves for the suppression of the results of any forensic evaluation of the computer seized from the hotel room and of any United States mail delivered to the hotel room after April 11. Defendant asserts that the manner in which the evidence was obtained violated the Fourth Amendment in several respects. First, the phone log showing all outgoing calls from Defendant's hotel room was obtained on April 10, 2008, without a warrant. Second, Defendant maintains that the officers' search of Defendant's hotel suite on April 11, 2008, was unreasonable within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment because the officers had not obtained a warrant or consent for the search.5 Lastly, Defendant argues that all evidence obtained subsequent to the April 11, 2008, entry into the hotel suite should be excluded under the fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine.
Defendant lodges four objections to the PF & R, all of which stem from the "Government['s] fail[ure] to present sufficient evidence to satisfy any of the established exceptions to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement." (Docket 66 at 2.) Defendant first argues that he did not consent to the initial search of the hotel suite. Defendant's second objection asserts the officers' protective sweep of the suite was not justified because Defendant was not under arrest when the sweep occurred. In his third objection, Defendant maintains that Hoffman did not give the officers consent to search....
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Toon v. Zerkle
...sweep is permissible when police entered a hotel room with consent but had not yet arrested a suspect. United States v. Davis, 588 F.Supp.2d 693, 703 (S.D. W.Va. 2008) (Johnston, J.). Other circuits have addressed the specific question of whether entry to a residence may be based on implied......
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People v. Dudley, No. D054770 (Cal. App. 4/27/2010)
...could support a protective sweep. (See discussions in United States v. Gould, supra, 364 F.3d at p. 586, fn. 6 and United States v. Davis (2008) 588 F.Supp.2d 693, 702-703.) 8. In its opposition memorandum, the prosecution stated that on the morning of May 2 the detectives were at a La Mesa......