U.S. v. Saffeels

• Decision Date: 22 December 1992
• Docket Number: No. 92-1823,92-1823
• Citation: 982 F.2d 1199
• Parties: 37 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 930 UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lawrence A. SAFFEELS, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1199

982 F.2d 1199

37 Fed. R. Evid. Serv. 930

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Lawrence A. SAFFEELS, Appellant.

No. 92-1823.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Oct. 12, 1992.

Decided Dec. 22, 1992.

Gary W. Conklin, Sioux Falls, SD, for appellant.

Michelle G. Tapkin, Asst. U.S. Atty., Sioux Falls, SD, for appellee.

Before FAGG, Circuit Judge, LAY, Senior Circuit Judge, and BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

Lawrence A. Saffeels appeals from his convictions for being a felon in possession of a firearm, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (1988), and for possession of an unregistered firearm, 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (1988). Saffeels also appeals from the 360-month sentence imposed on him by the District Court. ¹ For the reasons set forth below, we affirm Saffeels's convictions and sentence.

The complicated factual scenario underlying this case and the range of issues raised on appeal require that we set forth the facts in detail. The charges brought in this case stem from the robbery of the Excel Inn in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on December 29, 1989. The Excel Inn robbery was committed by a thin man, approximately six feet tall, with blond or sandy-colored hair; the robber wore a dark, army-type coat and was armed with a sawed-off shotgun. At the time this robbery was committed Saffeels was on parole for a 1987 aggravated robbery conviction rendered in Martin County, Minnesota.

Approximately one month after the Excel Inn robbery, on January 27, 1990, the Thrifty Franklin Motel in Fairmont, Minnesota, was robbed. The desk clerk at that motel promptly reported the robbery to the police. The clerk described the robber as being approximately six feet tall with a slim build, and as having blond shoulder-length hair and a blond moustache. The clerk stated that the robber was wearing a dark coat, jeans, and a stocking cap, and that he was armed with a sawed-off shotgun. The police broadcast this description over the police radio.

Upon hearing the broadcast, Officer Peymann, who was several miles west of Fairmont on Interstate 90, positioned his car with his headlights focused to observe oncoming traffic travelling away from Fairmont. The occupants of the first eight to ten cars to pass Peymann each checked their speedometers or otherwise reacted to Peymann's presence. After eight or ten cars had passed Peymann's location, Saffeels drove by. Unlike the other drivers, Saffeels ignored Peymann and looked away from him.

In Officer Peymann's experience this was an unusual reaction, so the officer pulled out behind Saffeels and followed him for a distance. Saffeels continued to ignore Peymann's presence. Peymann observed that Saffeels had long blond hair and recorded the license plate of Saffeels's vehicle. Peymann then broke off his observation of Saffeels, returned to Fairmont, and reported what he had seen to Officer DeJong, the officer in charge of the investigation. DeJong calculated that if the robber had driven away from the inn at the speed limit he would have passed Peymann at almost exactly the time that Saffeels drove by. DeJong told Peymann to have Saffeels's vehicle stopped, and Peymann requested police in counties to the west of Fairmont to stop the vehicle.

Officer Schelhaas, a police officer in Worthington some distance to the west of Fairmont, received a call from his dispatcher reporting the armed robbery and asking him to stop Saffeels's vehicle if he should encounter it. Schelhaas did in fact observe the vehicle, and he and two other officers executed a "full felony stop" of Saffeels. The officers pulled Saffeels's vehicle over to the side of the road using their sirens (the officers were in two separate cars) and directed Saffeels to get out of the car with his arms raised. When Saffeels stepped out of the car, Officer Schelhaas observed a six to eight inch knife with a brass-knuckled handle in plain view inside the open door. The officers directed Saffeels to back up to them. They then frisked and handcuffed him.

Officer Schelhaas asked Saffeels where the shotgun he had used in the robbery was, but received no helpful response. Schelhaas was concerned that there might be someone else in Saffeels's car and approached the car using Saffeels as a shield. The officer saw a lump on the floor on the passenger side of the car under a coat and thought that there might be a person under the coat. Schelhaas leaned into the car, moved the coat, and discovered Saffeels's sawed-off shotgun protruding from a duffel bag. Following this discovery, Saffeels was arrested and taken to the local police station.

Saffeels was held in the Martin County jail, in Minnesota, on state charges of robbing the Thrifty Franklin Motel. He escaped from that jail, was recaptured in California in September 1990, and was returned to Martin County. By the time Saffeels was returned to Minnesota, federal firearms charges stemming from the Excel Inn robbery in Sioux Falls had been filed against him in the United States District Court for the District of South Dakota. A detainer based on the charges was filed against Saffeels at the Martin County jail. On September 26, 1990, Saffeels signed that detainer and requested that he receive a speedy trial on the federal charges.

Following Saffeels's signing of the detainer, the United States Attorney in South Dakota decided that, because Saffeels was in jail awaiting trial on the Minnesota charges, the Interstate Agreement on Detainers did not apply to him. The United States Attorney notified Saffeels that the detainer's request for a speedy trial would not take effect until Saffeels was tried on the pending state charges. Saffeels was convicted on the Martin County charges on October 3, 1991. Shortly thereafter he was transferred to the Minnesota Correctional Facility at Stillwater. A new federal detainer was filed against Saffeels on October 17, 1991. Saffeels was transferred to federal custody in South Dakota, and, following a jury trial in the District Court on February 4-5, 1992, was convicted on the firearms charges.

For reversal of his conviction, Saffeels argues that: 1) the charges against him should have been dismissed because the government violated provisions of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD) and of the federal speedy trial statute; 2) his January 27, 1990 arrest violated the Fourth Amendment and evidence obtained as a result of the arrest should have been suppressed; 3) the trial court erred in admitting evidence regarding the Thrifty Franklin Motel robbery; and 4) the trial court erred in admitting evidence of three prior convictions. Saffeels also challenges the District Court's decision to sentence him as a career offender, which resulted in his receiving a sentence of 360 months.

I.

Saffeels first argues that the charges against him should have been dismissed because the government violated his rights under the Interstate Agreement on Detainers (IAD), 18 U.S.C.App. (1988), and under a section of the federal speedy trial statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3161(j) (1988). We address these contentions in sequence.

The IAD was enacted in order to encourage the orderly and expeditious disposition of criminal charges pending in one jurisdiction against prisoners in another jurisdiction. 18 U.S.C.App. § 2, art. I. It provides prosecutors a way to obtain custody of defendants for trial, and provides prisoners with procedural protections when custody is so obtained and with a mechanism by which they can procure a resolution of pending criminal charges for which a detainer has been filed against them. Id. arts. III-V. Specifically, as concerns this case, the IAD provides:

Whenever a person has entered upon a term of imprisonment in a penal or correctional institution of a party State, and whenever during the continuance of the term of imprisonment there is pending in any other party State any untried indictment, information, or complaint on the basis of which a detainer has been lodged against the prisoner, he shall be brought to trial within one hundred and eighty days after he shall have caused to be delivered to the prosecuting officer and the appropriate court of the prosecuting officer's jurisdiction written notice of the place of his imprisonment and his request for a final disposition to be made of the indictment, information, or complaint....

Id. art. III(a). Saffeels argues that, under this provision, he was entitled to be tried within 180 days after the federal detainer was lodged against him and after he requested a prompt trial; in other words, he claims he was entitled to be tried within 180 days of September 26, 1990. He contends that, because he was not tried until February 1992, the charges against him should have been dismissed under Article V(c) of the IAD.

It is well established that a pretrial detainee is not a person who has entered upon a "term of imprisonment" so as to be entitled to the protections of the IAD. United States v. Harris, 566 F.2d 610, 612-13 (8th Cir.1977) (explaining that IAD was intended to minimize interference with prisoners' treatment and rehabilitation; this objective has no application to pretrial detainees who are merely awaiting trial and have no immediate interest in treatment and rehabilitation programs); United States v. Bayless, 940 F.2d 300, 303-04 (8th Cir.1991). Saffeels argues, however, that he was not merely a pretrial detainee while he was being held at the Martin County jail. He contends that, because he received credit for the time he was detained against his sentence for his 1987 aggravated robbery conviction, for which his parole was revoked, he was serving a "term of imprisonment."

If Saffeels's parole was in fact revoked before September 26, 1990, then he is correct that he was serving a "term of imprisonment." See United States v. Roy, 771 F.2d 54, 57-58 (2d Cir.1985) (holding that defendant whose parole for a prior conviction has been revoked and against whom additional...