U.S. v. Miller
| Decision Date | 13 July 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. 97-10472,97-10472 |
| Citation | 146 F.3d 274 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Richard Eugene MILLER, Defendant-Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Christy Lee Drake, Asst. U.S. Atty., Amarillo, TX, for Plaintiff-Appellee.
Sam L. Ogan, Amarillo, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Before BARKSDALE, BENAVIDES and DENNIS, Circuit Judges.
Richard Eugene Miller appeals his conviction for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and a related forfeiture count. He challenges the denial of a motion to suppress evidence and the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the conviction and forfeiture. We hold that the district court erred in admitting into evidence drugs that were seized when Miller was stopped for having a turn signal on without turning or changing lanes. Finding that flashing a turn signal under these circumstances is not a violation of Texas law and therefore did not create probable cause for the stop, and that Miller's subsequent consent to search did not cure the taint of the unconstitutional stop, we vacate the judgment of conviction with respect to each count and remand.
Shortly before 1:00 p.m. on September 27, 1996, Randall County Deputy Sheriff John Sheets spotted Richard Eugene Miller driving a motor home east on Interstate 40, near Amarillo, Texas. Sheets was working as a member of the Criminal Interdiction Unit of the Panhandle Regional Narcotics Trafficking Task Force, which, according to Sheets, sought to interdict illegal drugs by stopping motorists under the pretext of enforcing traffic laws in order to obtain voluntary consent to search their vehicles. Sheets, observing that Miller's motor home had no front license plate, turned around to follow it to see if it had the required license registration in the rear. As Sheets was following, Miller exited Interstate 40, turning south onto Soncy Road. Sheets then saw that the motor home had a temporary Colorado registration tag, but also noticed that it had its left turn signal on for a period of time during which it proceeded through an intersection but did not turn left nor change lanes to the left. Sheets pulled Miller over, and they were joined shortly thereafter by Brent Clay, an Amarillo police officer who was also a member of the Regional Narcotics Task Force.
After pulling him over, Sheets informed Miller that he was going to issue him a warning citation for improper use of his left turn signal. He then told Miller that he and Clay were looking for illegal contraband and asked if Miller would mind if he and Clay searched the motor home. Miller indicated that he did not object to a search. The officers undertook a search and found approximately eighty kilograms of marijuana in a compartment under a bed in the motor home and they arrested Miller.
Miller was indicted for possession with intent to distribute marijuana and the prosecution sought forfeiture of his motor home. Miller pleaded not guilty and moved to suppress both the admission of the marijuana and certain statements he made after his arrest. The magistrate judge held an evidentiary hearing and recommended that the motion to suppress be denied. The district court then conducted a hearing and denied the motion to suppress with respect to the admission of the marijuana but granted it with respect to Miller's statements.
A jury trial was held over two days. Miller was convicted of possession with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and his motor home was found to be subject to forfeiture pursuant to 21 U.S.C. § 853. He was sentenced to four years and eight months imprisonment and three years supervised release. He timely filed a notice of appeal.
Miller argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress with respect to the marijuana found in his motor home because it was obtained as the result of an unconstitutional stop. To justify the stop the prosecution relies solely, as it did in the court below, on the claim that the police had probable cause to stop Miller because he violated Texas law by flashing his turn signal without turning or changing lanes. Miller asserts that there is no such violation under Texas law, and that therefore no probable cause to stop him existed. He also argues that his consent to search did not cure the taint of the illegal stop. It cannot be disputed that the fruits of the stop were essential in securing Miller's conviction on each count.
We review determinations of probable cause de novo, accepting findings of fact absent clear error. See Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 698-700, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 1663, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996). Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 808-10, 116 S.Ct. 1769, 1772, 135 L.Ed.2d 89 (1996) (internal citations omitted). The central question before us, therefore, is whether Sheets had probable cause to believe that Miller had committed a traffic violation.
The prosecution argues that Sheets had probable cause to stop Miller because by flashing a turn signal without turning or changing lanes he was in violation of section 547.305 of the Texas Transportation Code. That section states, in full:
A person may not operate a motor vehicle equipped with a red, white, or blue beacon, flashing, or alternating light unless the equipment is: (1) used as specifically authorized by this chapter; or (2) a running lamp, headlamp, taillamp, backup lamp, or turn signal that is used as authorized by law.
Tex. Transp. Code § 547.305(c) (Vernon Supp.1997). The prosecution argues that flashing a light without turning or changing lanes is not "specifically authorized by law" by pointing to § 545.104 of the Texas Transportation Code to show that the only authorized uses of flashing lights are to signal turns, lane changes, or movements out of a parked position. Section 545.104 states, in full:
(a) An operator shall use the signal authorized by Section 545.106 1 to indicate an intention to turn, change lanes, or start from a parked position.
(b) An operator intending to turn a vehicle right or left shall signal continuously for not less than the last 100 feet of movement of the vehicle before the turn.
(c) An operator may not light the signals on only one side of the vehicle on a parked or disabled vehicle or use the signals as a courtesy or "do pass" signal to the operator of another vehicle approaching from the rear.
Tex. Transp. Code § 545.104 (Vernon Supp.1997).
Miller points out that the cited provisions do not explicitly state that flashing a turn signal without turning or changing lanes is a violation and asserts that it is inappropriate to read such a violation into section 547.305(c), a provision which is concerned with the types of lighting equipment that vehicles are required and forbidden to have. In support of his position that the statute did not provide sufficient notice of such a violation, Miller quotes the Assistant U.S. Attorney's own statement at trial that "[t]he statute is real clear to [her], but you almost have to read it backwards."
We agree with Miller that a plain reading of the Code provisions at issue does not support the view that having a turn light on without turning or changing lanes is a violation of Texas law. Section 547.305(c) appears in the Code in a chapter titled "Vehicle Equipment," in the subchapter "General Provisions Regarding Lighting Requirements." Although the section has the heading "Restrictions on the Use of Lights," a review of the section indicates that it addresses what kinds of lighting equipment are required and prohibited on various vehicles, rather than how or when lights are to be used. The aim of the particular provision cited by the prosecution clearly seems to be prohibiting vehicle owners from operating vehicles equipped with non-standard lights. It should go without saying that penal statutes are to be strictly construed, see United States v. Daniel, 813 F.2d 661 (5th Cir.1987), and we find it strained to infer that the reference in section 547.305(c) to the phrase "turn signal that is used as authorized by law" creates a series of violations for all uses that are not explicitly authorized. The phrase is more readily understood to be noting the types of lights that are excepted from the rule against operating a motor vehicle equipped with a red, white, or blue beacon or flashing light, rather than to be specifying that any particular uses of the lights that are allowed constitute infractions. This reading is strengthened by the fact that the chapter in which the provision appears has a separate "General Offense" section, which identifies violations entailing the operation of vehicles that are not appropriately equipped, without any suggestion that the chapter makes it a violation to use lights that one is allowed to have on a vehicle in any particular way. 2
Even more striking is the fact that section 545.104--the section from which the prosecution seeks to derive what counts as turn signaling that is "authorized by law"--explicitly indicates two instances in which signaling is prohibited: when a vehicle is parked or disabled and when used as a "do pass" signal. It is hard to reconcile the legislature's view that these particular uses of signaling had to be identified as violations if it intended that any other uses not specifically...
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