U.S. v. Randall
| Decision Date | 30 October 1989 |
| Docket Number | Nos. 88-3648,88-3649,s. 88-3648 |
| Citation | 887 F.2d 1262 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Kenneth RANDALL, Defendant-Appellant. UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Sheba RICE and Anthony C. Lybretti, Jr., Defendants-Appellants. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Bruce C. Ashley, New Orleans, La. (court-appointed), for Randall.
Walter Becker, Robert J. Boitmann, Asst. U.S. Attys., John P. Volz, U.S. Atty., New Orleans, La., for U.S.
Archie B. Creech, New Orleans, La., for Rice.
Frank G. DeSalvo, New Orleans, La., for Lybretti.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
Before GEE, JONES, Circuit Judges, and HUNTER, * District Judge:
This consolidated appeal attacks, on various grounds, the defendants' convictions in the district court on drug trafficking charges. Defendant Randall appeals his conviction and sentence by alleging that the district court erred regarding (i) the admissibility and sufficiency of the evidence used against him, (ii) the denial of his motion for mistrial (by which defendant alleges the court abused its discretion), and (iii) by failing to find exceptional circumstances warranting a departure from the Sentencing Guidelines. Defendants Rice and Lybretti appeal the district court's denial of their motion to suppress evidence, alleging error in the court's findings of fact regarding the government's conduct in their arrests and the searches and seizures executed in the immediate aftermath of the offenses. For the reasons set forth below, we hold that none of defendants' challenges reveals error in the disposition of the district court and that, consequently, that decision must be affirmed.
In May of 1988, a confidential informant negotiated by telephone with Randall for the purchase of two kilograms of cocaine. Drug enforcement agents monitored and taped the transaction. Randall told the informant that he would arrive in Slidell, Louisiana on May 11, 1988, accompanied by his drug source who had the cocaine. On that day, Randall checked into the Holiday Inn in Slidell along with Rice and Lybretti. Agents observed all three converse with each other and otherwise behave as if together. Randall checked into room 205 and Rice and Lybretti checked into room 223.
Special agent Robert Breard of the Drug Enforcement Administration sent the informant to meet Randall in room 205. During the meeting, Randall refused to show the cocaine to the informant, demanding that the informant "front" the money. The informant left the room, but the agents sent him back in to demand to see the cocaine. Randall agreed, and the surveillance team saw him leave the room and enter room 223 with a brown travel bag. Rice and Lybretti had entered and remained in room 223. Randall returned to room 205 with the bag and displayed two taped wrapped packages of cocaine to the informant. The informant then departed, and the surveillance team saw Randall first enter the room occupied by Rice and Lybretti and next return to his own room.
During the course of the day, the surveillance team observed that Lybretti would occasionally leave his room to "quickly and nervously scan the parking lot." The confidential informant advised agent Breard that during the previous meetings in Randall's room, Randall had stated that he was accompanied by two other persons. Randall explained that one individual was extremely nervous, was "paranoid" about being arrested by the D.E.A., was in possession of a firearm, and was very anxious to complete the transaction and depart.
After the confidential informant had related all of his conversations and observations to the agents, the team moved in to secure the two rooms pending applications for search warrants. As they approached room 223, agents saw the door open and Rice stand in the threshold. They entered the room, identified themselves and announced their purpose. Lybretti was standing next to the bed. The agents seated the suspects on the bed to ensure that they could be safely watched and could not reach for weapons or contraband. Before seating them, Agent Breard removed the bedspread to check for weapons and observed two tape wrapped items that he recognized immediately as kilogram packages of cocaine. These were seized and inspected.
The agents entered room 205 and discovered Randall ingesting a quantity of cocaine. A search revealed more cocaine on his person or in some nearby clothing. Agents also removed a firearm from Randall's person. Randall raises several other issues on appeal relating to the conduct of his trial, which are not relevant to the appeals of Rice and Lybretti. The facts surrounding these matters will be detailed in our discussion of those issues.
Defendants Randall, Rice and Lybretti were each indicted in May 1988 on one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute approximately two kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride in violation of 21 U.S.C. sections 841(a)(1) and 846, and on one count of possession with intent to distribute approximately two kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride in violation of 21 U.S.C. section 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. section 2. The next month, a superseding indictment was returned against the defendants which added one additional count against Kenneth Randall. In the superseding indictment, Randall was charged with violation of 18 U.S.C. sections 2 and 924(c)(1) relative to carrying firearms in relation to a drug trafficking crime.
Randall filed a motion to suppress evidence, which the magistrate allowed defendants Rice and Lybretti to adopt. Based on several findings of fact, however, the magistrate denied the motion. All three defendants filed a motion for review of the magistrate's proposed findings and recommendations. The district judge heard arguments from both sides and made a de novo ruling denying the motion to suppress and adopting the finding of the magistrate.
At trial, the jury found Randall guilty as charged, and he was sentenced to 78 months imprisonment plus four years supervised release on both count one and two, the sentences to run concurrently. On count three, Randall was sentenced to sixty months imprisonment plus the three years supervised release, to run consecutively to the sentence on counts one and two. About this time, defendants Rice and Lybretti each pled guilty to one count of the superseding indictment. As part of their plea agreements, these defendants reserved a right to appeal the trial court's ruling on their motion to suppress. Rice was sentenced to 24 months imprisonment with 3 years supervised release; Lybretti to 85 months imprisonment and 3 years supervised release. All defendants appeal.
Randall first contends that the two kilograms of cocaine and the firearm should have been suppressed because they were seized after the agents had entered rooms 205 and 223 without sufficient justification. He maintains that there was no probable cause to believe that two kilograms of cocaine could be found in his room, further contending that there was no sufficient showing by the government of "exigent circumstances" justifying a warrantless entry into and search of room 223. Finally, he asserts that the seizure of evidence from the rooms of Randall, Rice and Lybretti cannot be upheld as part of a search incident to a lawful arrest.
We have long pitched the standard of review for a motion to suppress based on live testimony at a suppression hearing at a high level. "[T]he trial court's purely factual findings must be accepted unless clearly erroneous, or influenced by an incorrect view of the law." United States v. Maldonado, 735 F.2d 809, 814 (5th Cir.1984). The initial question faced by the trial court is whether the agents had probable cause to arrest the defendants. "Probable cause to arrest exists 'where the facts and circumstances within [the arresting officers'] knowledge and of which they had reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that 'an offense has been or is being committed.' " Passman v. Blackburn, 652 F.2d 559, 564 (5th Cir.1981) cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1022, 102 S.Ct. 1722, 72 L.Ed.2d 141 (1982), quoting Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 313; 79 S.Ct. 329, 333; 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959).
The requisite probable cause to arrest was indubitably present here. The agents received information from a reliable informant that he had arranged a drug buy from Randall and that Randall would be travelling with his drug source, arriving in Slidell on a specific date and checking into the Holiday Inn. These negotiations were recorded. Motel employees corroborated this information by informing the agents that Randall and his two companions had checked into the hotel on that date, in rooms not far from each other. The agents further investigated the matter by sending the informant in to meet with Randall, learning from the informant of the ensuing negotiations. Most damning to Randall's argument are his own admissions to the informant. Randall explained to the informant that he was accompanied by two other individuals and that one was exceedingly nervous, "paranoid" about being arrested by the D.E.A., in possession of a firearm, and anxious to complete the transaction and depart. The agents observed that the defendants were acting together and that Lybretti would nervously scan the parking lot. Consequently, the magistrate properly found that there was probable cause to believe that a cocaine transaction was about to occur based on reliable information from the informant corroborated by surveillance by agents on the scene.
Randall next complains that even assuming that there was probable cause to enter the motel rooms, there were no exigent circumstances to excuse the warrantless search and arrest. We have...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
U.S. v. O'Keefe, 96-31181
...disclosure of the FBI 302 reports violated Brady. See Lawrence v. Lensing, 42 F.3d 255, 257 (5th Cir.1994); United States v. Randall, 887 F.2d 1262, 1269 (5th Cir.1989); McKinney, 758 F.2d at 1050. As we have extensively discussed above, O'Keefe's attorneys used Donaldson's FBI report to co......
-
United States v. Carrillo
...78 F.3d 154, 156 (5th Cir.1996), and to “evaluate all of the circumstances under which the defendant acted,” United States v. Randall, 887 F.2d 1262, 1268 (5th Cir.1989). Intrinsic evidence does not implicate rule 404(b), and “consideration of its admissibility pursuant to [that rule] is un......
-
U.S. v. Walters
...the defense was able to review the reports for a few days and use them to conduct an effective cross-examination); United States v. Randall, 887 F.2d 1262, 1269 (5th Cir.1989) (holding that the government's disclosure of a witness's drug addiction during trial did not violate Brady due proc......
-
U.S. v. Navarro
...F.2d 1249 (5th Cir.1988).22 United States v. Royal, 972 F.2d 643, 647 (5th Cir.1992) (citations omitted) (quoting United States v. Randall, 887 F.2d 1262, 1268 (5th Cir.1989)).23 United States v. Coleman, 78 F.3d 154 (5th Cir.1996).24 United States v. Mmahat, 106 F.3d 89 (5th Cir.1997), cer......