U.S. v. Humphrey

• Decision Date: 30 March 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-3488.,97-3488.
• Citation: 140 F.3d 762
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul Edward HUMPHREY, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

140 F.3d 762

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Paul Edward HUMPHREY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 97-3488.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted January 13, 1998.

Decided March 30, 1998.

Robert E. Irwin, Russellville, AR (Dale S. Braden and Stephanie M.L. Bowden, Russellville, AR, on the brief), for Defendant-Appellant.

Clarence Daniel Stripling, Asst.U.S.Atty., Little Rock, AR, on the brief, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before LOKEN and MURPHY, Circuit Judges, and KYLE,¹ District Judge.

MURPHY, Circuit Judge.

Paul Humphrey pled guilty to possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), possession of an unregistered firearm, 26 U.S.C. § 5661(b), and possession of marijuana, 21 U.S.C. § 844(a), conditioned on his right to appeal the denial of his suppression motion by the district court². He argues that evidence seized from his house should be suppressed because it resulted from a warrant that relied on stale evidence and lacked probable cause. We affirm.

William and Nancy Mueller and Nancy's daughter, Sarah Powell, disappeared from their community of Tilley, Arkansas in early 1996. On February 11 a Jeep and trailer belonging to William Mueller were found abandoned in rural Pope County. Law enforcement attention focused on Paul Humphrey when Nancy's brother, David Branch, informed Sheriff Jay Winters on February 22 that Humphrey had the title documents for the Jeep and trailer and that Branch had previously seen those documents, unsigned, in the Mueller residence on February 2. The next day Sheriff Winters asked Humphrey about the documents and he admitted having them and promised to produce them, but failed to do so until July 2.

Police investigation intensified after the bodies of the Muellers and Sarah Powell were found in the Illinois Bayou on June 28 with plastic bags taped over their heads and rocks attached to their bodies. Detectives of the Russelville police department went to Humphrey's home to discuss the developments. He met them at the door with a .45 pistol in the waist band of his pants and said he had been expecting them. He was taken to the sheriff's office where he said that he had received the title documents in the mail after the Muellers had disappeared and would provide them to the sheriff the next day. On July 2 Humphrey turned over the documents signed in William Mueller's name, but he did not produce any mailing envelope. The sheriff's office sent the documents to a forensic examiner with known samples of William Mueller's handwriting. On August 22 the examiner issued a report that stated the signatures on the title documents had been forged.

Six days after the forensic examiner reported her findings, police investigators obtained a warrant for Humphrey's home and the surrounding buildings to search for blood, duct tape, plastic bags, carpet and clothing fibers, firearms and precious metals believed to have been taken from the abandoned Jeep and trailer, and other items related to the deaths of the Muellers and Sarah Powell. During the search of Humphrey's house investigators found several plastic bags containing marijuana, marijuana seeds, partially smoked marijuana cigarettes, rolling papers, and other drug paraphernalia. They also found several dozen firearms, including one which was not registered.

Humphrey argues on appeal that the warrant which led to the seizure of the drugs and unregistered gun lacked probable cause because it relied on stale evidence and uncorroborated hearsay and that the evidence should therefore be suppressed. He contends that the length of time from February when the victims had disappeared and he had his first contact with authorities to the issuance of the search warrant on August 28 was so long that it was probable that the types of evidence sought would have been destroyed. We review the denial of a suppression motion for clear error. U.S. v. Taylor, 119 F.3d 625, 629 (8th Cir.1997).

The search warrant was supported by the affidavit of Sgt. Aaron Duvall of the Pope County sheriff's office. Duvall's affidavit stated that David Branch had seen the title documents to the Jeep and trailer in the Mueller residence shortly before they disappeared and that the documents were then unsigned, that Humphrey had admitted having the documents but for months refused repeated requests to surrender them, and that handwriting analysis indicated that William Mueller's signatures on them had been forged. It also reported that the Jeep and trailer were empty when found, that the Muellers had been on their way to a gun sale when they disappeared and they normally would have been carrying guns, ammunition, and precious metals on such a trip, that fibers taken...