U.S. v. Humphries

• Decision Date: 17 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-4567.,03-4567.
• Citation: 372 F.3d 653
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Deunte L. HUMPHRIES, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

372 F.3d 653

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Deunte L. HUMPHRIES, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 03-4567.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: January 22, 2004.

Decided: June 17, 2004.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: Richard Daniel Cooke, Special Assistant United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant. Reuben Voll Greene, JOHNSON & WALKER, P.C., Richmond, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Paul J. McNulty, United States Attorney, Michael J. Elston, Assistant United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellant.

Before NIEMEYER, WILLIAMS, and GREGORY, Circuit Judges.

Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge NIEMEYER wrote the opinion, in which Judge WILLIAMS joined. Judge GREGORY wrote an opinion concurring in the judgment.

OPINION

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

Deunte Humphries was arrested without a warrant in a high crime area of Richmond, Virginia, after a Richmond police officer smelled the odor of marijuana emanating from Humphries' person and after Humphries walked away from the officer, disobeying orders to stop for questioning. At the time, the officer also had reason to suspect that Humphries was carrying a concealed weapon.

Concluding that the officer did not have "probable cause to arrest" Humphries, the district court suppressed the evidence seized as the fruit of Humphries' arrest.

Accepting the factual findings made by the district court, we conclude as a matter of law that the officer had probable cause to believe that Humphries was committing a crime, justifying his arrest. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's suppression order and remand for further proceedings.

I

On June 25, 2003, City of Richmond Police Officers Gary Venable and A.D. Carr were patrolling an area of Richmond known for drug trafficking. As the officers pulled their marked police car onto a block with 5 to 15 persons "hanging outside" in the general area, Officer Venable saw Deunte Humphries pat his waist area. Officer Venable, a 16-year police veteran, interpreted the waist pat to be a "security check"; he suspected that Humphries was instinctively confirming the presence of his weapon by "checking to make sure it [was] there."

After they stopped their patrol car about 20 feet from Humphries and exited the vehicle, the officers smelled a strong odor of marijuana. When Officer Venable began walking toward a man standing near Humphries, he saw Humphries "out of the corner of [his] eye quickly turn and quickly walk away." Officer Venable then followed Humphries, saying to him, "I need to talk to you for a minute." Humphries did not answer and continued walking away at a quick pace. As Officer Venable picked up his pace and got to within 5 to 10 feet of Humphries, he smelled "the same strong odor of marijuana ... coming off of [Humphries'] person" as that which he had smelled upon exiting the patrol car. Officer Venable instructed Humphries to stop, but Humphries continued walking away at the same quick pace.

As Humphries turned up a sidewalk to approach a house on the 3100 block of Fifth Avenue, Officer Venable again instructed Humphries to stop, but Humphries ignored the order and walked quickly to the house and began knocking on the door. Officer Venable stopped at the foot of the stairs to the house and noted that the smell of marijuana remained strong and particularized to Humphries. After Humphries knocked several times, a woman opened the door and Humphries began to enter.

Officer Venable then said to Humphries, "That's it. Stop. Don't go in the house." Humphries ignored Officer Venable's command and walked into the house, glancing back at the officer. As Officer Venable stepped in the doorway and saw Humphries walk toward the kitchen, Officer Venable told Humphries he was under arrest. Officer Venable then went into the house and grabbed Humphries as he started to round a corner and enter the kitchen.

As Officer Venable took Humphries outside of the house, he smelled the odor of marijuana on Humphries' breath. Officer Venable patted Humphries down and recovered a 9mm semi-automatic handgun from the area where the officer had earlier seen Humphries pat his waist. After recovering the weapon, Officer Venable conducted a full search incident to arrest, finding 26 tablets of Percocet in Humphries' jacket pocket and a small amount of crack cocaine in his pants pocket.

Humphries was formally charged with possession of Percocet with intent to distribute, simple possession of Percocet, possession of crack cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 844 and 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Before trial, he filed a motion to suppress the drug and handgun evidence seized incident to his arrest, contending that the evidence was the fruit of an arrest that violated his Fourth Amendment rights. He argued that Officer Venable did not have probable cause to arrest him, nor did the officer have a "reasonable, articulable, particularized suspicion" of crime to stop him.

Following a hearing on Humphries' motion, the district court ordered the evidence suppressed. The court concluded that although the information known to Officer Venable "was certainly enough to give him the particularized suspicion necessary to stop the defendant and to question him to allay his suspicion that the defendant may be involved in the illegal possession or, perhaps more remotely, the distribution of marijuana," Officer Venable did not have probable cause to arrest Humphries. The court apparently understood probable cause to mean "more likely than not, [more than] 50/50."

The government filed this appeal, challenging the district court's ruling suppressing the evidence seized incident to Humphries' arrest.

II

The government does not challenge the district court's factual findings. Rather, it argues that based on the facts actually found by the district court, Officer Venable had probable cause to arrest Humphries and, incident to the arrest, to search him. Accordingly, the government asserts that the district court erred in suppressing the evidence recovered from the search incident to the arrest. Humphries responds simply by arguing that, as a matter of law, the evidence and inferences to be drawn therefrom were insufficient to establish probable cause for his arrest.¹

Our standard of review is familiar. While we review findings of historical fact only for clear error, we review the determination of probable cause de novo. Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). In our deference to fact-finding, we also give "due weight to inferences drawn from those facts by resident judges and local law enforcement officers." Id.

The legal inquiry begins with the Fourth Amendment, which provides that the people are "to be secure in their persons ... against unreasonable searches and seizures ... and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause." U.S. Const. amend. IV. This limitation is made applicable to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment. Wolf v. Colorado, 338 U.S. 25, 27-28, 69 S.Ct. 1359, 93 L.Ed. 1782 (1949). Under the Fourth Amendment, if supported by probable cause, an officer may make a warrantless arrest of an individual in a public place. Maryland v. Pringle, 540 U.S. 366, 124 S.Ct. 795, 799, 157 L.Ed.2d 769 (2003); United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 424, 96 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976); Street v. Surdyka, 492 F.2d 368, 371-72 (4th Cir.1974) (holding that a warrantless arrest may be made in a public place even if the crime for which the arrest was made was a misdemeanor committed outside an officer's presence). "Probable cause" sufficient to justify an arrest requires "facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge that are sufficient to warrant a prudent person, or one of reasonable caution, in believing, in the circumstances shown, that the suspect has committed, is committing, or is about to commit an offense." Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 37, 99 S.Ct. 2627, 61 L.Ed.2d 343 (1979).

Determining whether the officer has probable cause involves an inquiry into the totality of the circumstances. Pringle, 124 S.Ct. at 800. Moreover, the inquiry does not involve the application of a precise legal formula or test but the commonsense and streetwise assessment of the factual circumstances:

On many occasions, we have reiterated that the probable-cause standard is a practical, nontechnical conception that deals with the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.

Id. at 799 (internal quotation marks and citations omitted). And as we show deference to inferences that a resident judge draws from the factual circumstances, we show similar respect to the inferences drawn by law enforcement officers on the scene. Id. at 799-800; Ornelas, 517 U.S. at 699.

In assessing the totality of the circumstances, it is appropriate to consider specifically: an officer's practical experience and the inferences the officer may draw from that experience, see Ornelas, 517 U.S. at 700, 116 S.Ct. 1657; or the context of a high-crime area, see Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 124, 120 S.Ct. 673, 145 L.Ed.2d 570 (2000); or an individual's presence in a high-crime area coupled with his "[h]eadlong flight" upon noticing police, id.; or evasive conduct that falls short of headlong flight, United States v. Lender, 985 F.2d 151, 154 (4th Cir.1993); or even "seemingly innocent activity" when placed in the context of surrounding circumstances, Porterfield v. Lott, 156 F.3d 563, 569 (4th Cir.1998). At bottom, however, the probable-cause standard is "incapable of precise definition or quantification into percentages because it deals with probabilities and depends on the totality of the circumstances." Pringle, 124 S.Ct. at 800. Stripped to its essence, the question to be answered is whether an objectively...