U.S. v. Sinclair

• Decision Date: 12 January 1993
• Docket Number: No. 91-5698,91-5698
• Citation: 983 F.2d 598
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raymond Franzwa SINCLAIR, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

Page 598

983 F.2d 598

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Raymond Franzwa SINCLAIR, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 91-5698.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued Sept. 30, 1992.

Decided Jan. 12, 1993.

Sa'ad El-Amin, El-Amin & Crawford, P.C., Richmond, VA, argued, for defendant-appellant.

Julie Marie Campbell, Asst. U.S. Atty., Abingdon, VA, argued (E. Montgomery Tucker, U.S. Atty., on the brief), for plaintiff-appellee.

Before ERVIN, Chief Judge, and WIDENER and WILKINSON, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

ERVIN, Chief Judge:

Raymond Franzwa Sinclair pleaded guilty to one count of a two-count indictment charging him with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. The plea followed an evidentiary hearing in which the district court entertained a motion by Sinclair and several co-defendants to suppress certain statements relevant to each count of the indictment. Sinclair now appeals from the district court's order partially denying the motion to suppress, arguing that the statements were obtained after an unconstitutional police detention, and that his arrest was not supported by probable cause. Finding no merit in these contentions, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

I

In July 1989 Officer Scott Cline was conducting an undercover drug-dealing investigation in Waynesboro, Virginia. Acting on a tip from a reliable informant, Officer Cline contacted Maurice Levy, an inmate in the Augusta County jail, and while posing as a narcotics dealer offered to procure money for Levy's bail in exchange for crack cocaine. During one of their conversations about the arrangement Levy told Officer Cline: "My boys are suppose [sic] to be coming down tomorrow with a half [kilogram of cocaine]." Levy also stated that his "boys" were to "reach down there [Waynesboro] sometime tomorrow." With respect to their arrival time, Levy said, "[W]ell[,] I don't know what time the bus leaves. But they be down here tomorrow night." When Officer Cline asked whether his "boys" were bringing the cocaine on the bus, Levy answered, "Yea." The following conversation then took place:

Cline: Man that's scary. Do they got a good way to bring it?

Levy: Yeah, don't worry about it man, it's going to be down here.

Cline: Alright.

Levy: Because that stuff is going to be bigger than the one in the radio.

Cline: Alright.

Levy: Better than that.

Cline: Is it going to be ready rock?

Levy: Ready, ready.

Referring to his "boys," Levy remarked, "[I]f they don't know you, they not going to deal with you. But it's Jamaicans, I'm a Jamaican. You know what I'm saying?"

Levy and Officer Cline also discussed a second, unrelated narcotics transaction in which Officer Cline was to obtain a smaller quantity of crack cocaine from Levy's associates in the Waynesboro area. Levy directed Officer Cline to collect the drugs from a local dealer named "Ace," who was holding them in a radio. Levy also bade Officer Cline tell Ace: "Maurice sent you [Cline] from New York." Moreover, Officer Cline learned from Levy that Ace had a girlfriend named Lisa.

After his conversations with Levy, Officer Cline obtained a schedule for buses passing through Waynesboro and Staunton from New York the next day. He concluded from the schedule that Levy's "boys" would arrive either on a 12:35 p.m. bus in Waynesboro, a 1:30 p.m. bus in Staunton, or a bus stopping in Waynesboro later that evening. Officer Cline and two other members of the Waynesboro police force then went to the Waynesboro bus station to await the arrival of the 12:35 bus.

As the bus pulled into the station, Officer Cline joined the queue of passengers waiting to embark. From his position he saw four black males, including a man later identified as Sinclair, get off the bus. He overheard them speaking in what he believed were Jamaican accents. Officer Cline also observed that two of the four were wearing pagers, devices his experience in drug investigation work had led him to associate with narcotics dealers. Officer Cline boarded the bus and asked the driver where the men had embarked; the driver replied that they had come from New York. Officer Cline thereupon joined his fellow officers in their patrol car.

As the four men made their way along a public street leading away from the station, walking in groups of two some distance apart, the officers pulled their car between the first and second groups and ordered the men to stop. Most of the suspects were carrying luggage; one bore a large radio. Drawing their weapons, the officers identified themselves and told the men to drop their bags and place their hands on the car. A pat-down search of the men revealed no weapons. Officer Cline then asked where they were going; one of the four answered that they were "going to Lisa's." Responding to a question from one of the suspects about what was happening, Officer Cline said that he suspected they had drugs.

While Officer Cline was addressing the four suspects, a fellow officer radioed the Virginia State Police to request that a drug-sniffing dog and its trainer be dispatched to the scene. When the dog arrived, Officer Cline placed the luggage and the radio in a line on the ground. On its second walk past the bags, the dog responded as if it sensed the presence of narcotics; on its third pass, the animal alerted to the radio. When Officer Cline asked each suspect whether the radio belonged to him, two of the four said "No." The men were then driven to the Waynesboro police station, fifteen to twenty minutes having elapsed since the initial stop. At the station Officer Cline obtained a search warrant to open the radio. When he discovered crack cocaine inside, the men were read their rights and placed under arrest.

A grand jury charged the four men with conspiracy to possess crack cocaine with intent to distribute, and possession of crack cocaine with intent to distribute, violations of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(B)(iii), and 846. The defendants then jointly moved to suppress certain evidence and statements taken from them in alleged dereliction of their Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment rights, arguing that the intrusive techniques employed by the officers escalated the encounter into an arrest. Because the warnings required by Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 445-45, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 1612, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966), did not follow on the heels of the arrest, the defendants contended that all evidence and statements the police had obtained after the initial stop should be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree. Raymond Sinclair, one of the four defendants and the appellant in this case, further moved to dismiss the indictment against him.

The district court identified three issues in the defendants' motion to suppress: (1) whether the initial stop was a valid investigative detention; (2) when, if ever, the initial stop escalated into an arrest; and (3) whether that arrest was supported by sufficient probable cause. The court concluded that (1) the initial stop was a valid investigative detention under the rule announced in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1880, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); (2) the initial stop became an arrest from the moment the sniffing dog alerted to the radio; and (3) Officer Cline's discussions with Maurice Levy, coupled with his observations of the four suspects, supported a finding of probable cause for the defendants' ultimate arrest. The district court therefore granted the defendants' motion to suppress all statements made by them from the moment they were de facto arrested (about 1:00 p.m.) until shortly after they were read their rights (about 2:50 p.m.), and denied the motion as to statements made before the dog alerted. The court also denied Sinclair's motion to dismiss the indictment as to him. 732 F.Supp. 656. This appeal followed.

II

Sinclair assigns error to two of the three conclusions that sustained the district court's partial denial of the defendants' motion to suppress. Specifically, he claims that Officer Cline had no probable cause to arrest him, and that the court did not determine correctly when his arrest took place. We address these points in turn, reviewing legal conclusions involved in the district court's suppression determination de novo. See United States v. Rusher, 966 F.2d 868, 873 (4th Cir.1992).

A.

First, Sinclair argues that the police did not have probable cause to arrest him. We are mindful that "probable cause is a fluid concept--turning on the assessment of probabilities in particular factual contexts--not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules." Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 232, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2329, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983). The standard for whether probable cause exists is an objective one; it exists when, "at the time the arrest occurs, the facts and circumstances within the officer's knowledge would warrant the belief of a prudent person that the arrestee had committed or was committing an offense." United States v. Manbeck, 744 F.2d 360, 376 (4th Cir.1984), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1217, 105 S.Ct. 1197, 84 L.Ed.2d 342 (1985). Probable cause can, therefore, be based on an assessment of a "combination of factors," United States v. Hummer, 916 F.2d 186, 190 (4th Cir.1990), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 111 S.Ct. 1608, 113 L.Ed.2d 670 (1991), that reflect the totality of the circumstances known to the investigating officer. Gates, 462 U.S. at 230, 103 S.Ct. at 2328.

We find the Supreme Court's decision in Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959)--"the classic case on the value of corroborative efforts of police officials," Gates, 462 U.S. at 242, 103 S.Ct. at 2334--to be controlling on the probable cause question presented here. There an informant reported that Draper would arrive in Denver on a train from Chicago on one of two days, and that he would be bearing a quantity of heroin. The informant also...