U.S. v. Oates, 98-2640

• Decision Date: 05 April 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-2640,98-2640
• Citation: 173 F.3d 651
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth Stewart OATES, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 651

173 F.3d 651

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth Stewart OATES, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 98-2640.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Dec. 15, 1998.

Filed April 5, 1999.

Jordan S. Kushner, Minneapolis, MN, argued, for Defendant-Appellant.

Nathan Petterson, Minneapolis, MN, argued (B. Todd Jones, U.S. Attorney, on the brief), for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Before: McMILLIAN, LAY, and HALL, ¹ Circuit Judges.

CYNTHIA HOLCOMB HALL, Circuit Judge.

Kenneth Stewart Oates appeals his conviction ² for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and aiding and abetting the possession of crack cocaine with the intent to distribute it in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841 and 846. Oates contends that evidence seized from a search of the house he was staying at should have been suppressed, that testimony from his co-defendant was improperly admitted because it was obtained pursuant to a plea agreement, that the district court erred by refusing his requests for various subpoenas, that evidence of his prior conviction should not have been admitted, and that there was insufficient evidence to support his conspiracy conviction. The district court had jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3231, and this Court has jurisdiction to review the final judgment of the district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. We affirm.

I.

Kenneth Oates had been released from prison on unrelated charges on October 7, 1997. Needing a place to stay following his release, Oates asked Vadia Smith whether he could move into her house, located at 424 31st Avenue North, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Vadia Smith agreed, assuming that it would be only for a few days. Instead, Oates stayed for two weeks, and, according to Smith, converted her house into a crack den, bringing in Oates' friend, Esigie Samuel Ogbemudia, to help manage operations. After Oates refused Smith's requests that he leave, Smith went to local authorities on October 23, 1997, and signed a consent form permitting police officers to search her dwelling. Her property manager confirmed for authorities that only Smith and her children were authorized to live at the house. The manager provided officers with a diagram of the residence, which Smith used to identify the first-floor bedroom occupied by Oates.

Soon after obtaining Smith's consent, police officers entered Smith's residence using a key provided by Smith, and announced their presence. They then proceeded to Oates' bedroom, and were forced to break down the locked door. When officers entered the room, they found Oates attempting to escape out of a window, with Ogbemudia close behind. Officers outside of the house had previously heard the sound of glass breaking, and had observed Oates throw a bag containing approximately one ounce of crack cocaine out of the bedroom window.

In their search of Oates' bedroom and its occupants, police found a .380 gun magazine in Ogbemudia's pocket, a bag of suspected crack cocaine and a cellular telephone on the bed, and another bag of suspected crack cocaine on the floor near the window that Oates had broken. In addition, police seized a loaded .380 semiautomatic handgun and a loaded .357 firearm that were underneath the bed. Police also discovered a .22 caliber rifle with ammunition in the bedroom closet, and a digital scale, a box of baking soda, sandwich bags, and another cellular telephone on the table next to the bed. A key in Oates' pocket fit the lock on the bedroom door. A magistrate judge rejected Oates' attempts to suppress the fruits of this search.

Oates' co-defendant, Ogbemudia, reached a plea agreement with the government immediately before trial began. Ogbemudia agreed to cooperate with authorities in the hope of receiving downward departures and other favorable treatment at sentencing. At Oates' trial, Ogbemudia provided details of the drug sales that took place at Smith's house, testifying that he would bring customers into Oates' bedroom, where Oates would then sell them crack. Ogbemudia explained that Smith permitted her house to be used for drug sales in exchange for receiving crack.

Over defense objections, the government introduced evidence at trial of Oates' prior conviction in 1995 for possessing 4.4 grams of crack cocaine in violation of Minnesota law. James Murphy, a Minneapolis police officer, testified that a normal drug user who purchased as little as 3.5 grams of crack at a single time would be likely to sell at least part of that amount to others in order to support his or her drug habit.

Oates also testified in his own defense, stating that Ogbemudia and Smith were the ones actually involved in the drug conspiracy. According to Oates, Ogbemudia had been supplying Vadia Smith with crack. He testified further that while Oates had been staying at Smith's house, Ogbemudia would travel to Smith's house to sell her drugs or, alternatively, Smith would go to another residence associated with Ogbemudia at 2333 Marshall Street Northeast, Minneapolis, to make her purchases. Oates also stated that during his second week at Smith's home, Ogbemudia stored some bags and a gun at Smith's house. On the actual day of the search, Oates claimed that Ogbemudia brought over several more firearms, and later crack, because he feared that police were about to search his residence at 2333 Marshall Street. While Oates, an admitted drug user, was smoking some of Ogbemudia's crack, police raided Smith's house. Oates claimed that he was a mere crack user who was not involved in any ongoing drug conspiracy.

On cross-examination, the government questioned Oates further about his 1995 state conviction, and elicited testimony from Oates that he had originally been charged with the offense of selling, not merely possessing, crack cocaine.

During the course of Oates' three-day trial, the district court ruled on several requests for subpoenas made by Oates. On the first day of trial, the district court denied Oates' request to reconsider the prior denial of his application for a subpoena to review records of calls made from the cellular telephones that were seized during the search of Smith's residence. Oates expected the records to reveal a prior relationship between Ogbemudia and Smith, bolstering Oates' claims that he was not involved in what was an ongoing drug operation that he had only happened upon by circumstance. On the second day of trial, the district court denied Oates' request to subpoena officers who participated in a search at 2333 Marshall Street, which had been conducted at approximately the same time that police searched Smith's house. Oates apparently thought that the officers' testimony would corroborate his claims that Ogbemudia had only recently brought from the Marshall Street residence the items that police seized during their search of Smith's house.

Following Oates' conviction, the district court sentenced Oates to the statutory mandatory minimum of 240 months in prison, based on the 53.1 grams of crack cocaine involved in the crimes. Oates now challenges the magistrate judge's order refusing to suppress evidence seized from Smith's house; the district court's admission of Ogbemudia's testimony, which was allegedly tainted by his plea agreement; the court's refusal to issue various requested subpoenas; the admission of Oates' prior crime at trial; and the sufficiency of the evidence establishing that Oates participated in a conspiracy.

II.

Oates first contends that the police search of the bedroom that he occupied in Smith's home was illegal despite the fact that Smith consented to the search orally and in writing. Oates argues that, at the time of the search, the police could not have known whether Smith had the authority to consent to the search of his room in her house because he may have had a separate, reasonable expectation of privacy in his room. Oates also asserts that the police violated the knock and announce rule by not knocking on his bedroom door and announcing their presence before entering Oates' bedroom. "We review the facts supporting the district court's denial of the motion to suppress for clear error and review de novo the legal conclusions based on those facts." United States v. Glenn, 152 F.3d 1047, 1048 (8th Cir.1998).

The Supreme Court has stated that prior to searching a residence, police must reasonably believe at the time of the search that the person consenting to the search has the authority to do so. See Illinois v. Rodriguez, 497 U.S. 177, 185-86, 110 S.Ct. 2793, 111 L.Ed.2d 148 (1990); see also United States v. Czeck, 105 F.3d 1235, 1239 (8th Cir.1997) ("The relevant inquiry is whether the facts available would have justified a reasonable officer in the belief that the consenting party had authority over the premises."). Moreover, the Court has stated that a person's "status as an overnight guest is alone enough to show that [the guest] ... had an expectation of privacy in the home that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable." Minnesota v. Olson, 495 U.S. 91, 96-97, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990). The Court has also noted, however, that "[f]rom the overnight guest's perspective, he seeks shelter in another's home precisely because it provides him with ... a place where [the guest] ... and his possessions will not be disturbed by anyone but his host and those his host allows inside." Id. at 99, 110 S.Ct. 1684 (emphasis added).

Evidence adduced before the magistrate judge demonstrated that Smith reported to police that two people with firearms had taken over her residence in order to sell drugs. The property manager verified for authorities that only Smith and her children were authorized to occupy the home at 424 31st Avenue North. Smith consented both orally and in writing to the search of her house, and officers were given a key to her residence. In addition, Smith did not charge Oates rent, and Oates had refused to leave the house despite the request of both...