U.S. v. Thornton

• Decision Date: 03 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 02-4382.,02-4382.
• Citation: 325 F.3d 189
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Marcus THORNTON, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

325 F.3d 189

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Marcus THORNTON, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 02-4382.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: February 24, 2003.

Decided: April 3, 2003.

ARGUED: Walter Bruce Dalton, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellant. Laura Marie Everhart, Assistant United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Frank W. Dunham, Jr., Federal Public Defender, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellant. Paul J. McNulty, United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee.

Before WIDENER, WILLIAMS, and MOTZ, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ wrote the opinion, in which Judge WIDENER and Judge WILLIAMS joined.

OPINION

DIANA GRIBBON MOTZ, Circuit Judge:

A jury convicted Marcus Thornton of possession with intent to distribute cocaine base and two firearm offenses. On appeal, he challenges only the district court's refusal to suppress a firearm found in his automobile, maintaining that it was not legally obtained pursuant to a "search incident to arrest." For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I.

At a pretrial suppression hearing, the parties produced the following evidence.

On July 21, 2001, Officer Deion L. Nichols, of the Norfolk, Virginia Police Department, driving in an unmarked police cruiser, observed a gold Lincoln Town Car pull to his left that "wouldn't come all the way up to [him]." Assuming that the driver of the Lincoln suspected that he was a police officer, Officer Nichols pulled over to a side street and made a right turn. After the Lincoln passed him, Officer Nichols ran a check on the tags. The check revealed that the tags had been issued to a 1982 Chevy two-door car rather than a Lincoln Town Car. Officer Nichols followed the Lincoln, intending to pull it over. The Lincoln was driven into a parking lot, however, before Officer Nichols "had a chance to do so." Thornton parked the Lincoln and exited the vehicle. Officer Nichols "pulled in behind him and exited [his] vehicle." Officer Nichols, who was in uniform, then approached Thornton, asked him for his driver's license, and told him that his tags did not match the registered vehicle.

Thornton "appeared nervous" and "right away started rambling," "licking his lips," and "sweating." He told Officer Nichols that "someone had just given him the car." "For officer safety," Officer Nichols asked Thornton if he had any narcotics or weapons on him. Thornton said no. The officer then asked him if there were any weapons or narcotics in the car. Thornton again said no. Officer Nichols, "again for officer safety," patted Thornton down, after asking if he could do so. Officer Nichols felt a "bulge" in Thornton's front left pocket. The officer "didn't know what it was, so [he] just kind of casually asked Thornton, `Do you have any illegal narcotics on you?'" Thornton said that he had "a bag of weed." Officer Nichols then asked him if he could have the bag. Thornton "reached into his pocket" and "pulled out two individual bags," one containing three bags of a "green leafy material consistent with marijuana" and the other with a "large amount of an off-white rocklike substance consistent with crack cocaine."

At that point, Officer Nichols handcuffed Thornton and advised him that he was under arrest. (At trial, Officer Nichols testified that he immediately thereafter put Thornton in the back of the patrol car.) Then, "[i]ncident to that arrest," the officer searched the vehicle and found a "BryCo .9-millimeter handgun" under the front driver's seat, where he had observed Thornton sitting. On the way to the police station, Thornton told Officer Nichols, "without any provocation," that he had "just robbed some cat out at Ocean View, and that's where he got the dope."

On December 12, 2001, a grand jury charged Thornton with possession with intent to distribute cocaine base, in violation of 21 U.S.C.A. § 841(a)(1) (West 1999), possession of a firearm after having been previously convicted of a crime punishable by a term of imprisonment exceeding one year, in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 922(g)(1) (West 2000), and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C.A. § 924(c)(1) (West 2000).

Thornton moved to suppress the drugs, his statement, and the firearm on various grounds. After a hearing, the district court denied the motion, finding, inter alia, that Officer Nichols lawfully searched Thornton's automobile incident to his arrest and, alternatively, that Officer Nichols could have conducted an inventory search of the automobile.

On February 8, 2002, a jury convicted Thornton on all three counts. Thornton moved for a new trial, again arguing that the automobile search was unlawful. The district court denied the motion based on the earlier suppression ruling. On May 3, 2002, the district court sentenced Thornton to 180 months imprisonment and eight years of supervised release. Thornton appeals, challenging only the district court's refusal to suppress the firearm; he does not challenge the refusal to suppress the drugs or his statement.

II.

In reviewing the district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence, we review legal conclusions de novo and factual findings for clear error. See United States v. Weaver, 282 F.3d 302, 309 (4th Cir.2002).

Thornton's sole contention on appeal is that the search incident to arrest doctrine, as applied to searches of automobiles in New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), required Officer Nichols to "initiate ... contact with Thornton, either by actually confronting Thornton, or signaling confrontation with Thornton, while Thornton was still in his vehicle."

A.

It is a well-settled "first principle of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that the police may not conduct a search unless they first convince a neutral magistrate that there is probable cause to do so." Belton, 453 U.S. at 457, 101 S.Ct. 2860. In Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969), the Court discussed the rationale for and limitations of the "search incident to arrest" exception to that warrant requirement:

When an arrest is made, it is reasonable for the arresting officer to search the person arrested in order to remove any weapons that the latter might seek to use in order to resist arrest or effect his escape. Otherwise, the officer's safety might well be endangered, and the arrest itself frustrated. In addition, it is entirely reasonable for the arresting officer to search for and seize any evidence on the arrestee's person in order to prevent its concealment or destruction. And the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidentiary items must, of course, be governed by a like rule. A gun on a table or in a drawer in front of one who is arrested can be as dangerous to the arresting officer as one concealed in the clothing of the person arrested. There is ample justification, therefore, for a search of the arrestee's person and the area "within his immediate control" — construing that phrase to mean the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.

Chimel, 395 U.S. at 762-63, 89 S.Ct. 2034. The Court has often reiterated the "two historical rationales for the `search incident to arrest' exception: (1) the need to disarm the suspect in order to take him into custody, and (2) the need to preserve evidence for later use at trial." Knowles v. Iowa, 525 U.S. 113, 116, 119 S.Ct. 484, 142 L.Ed.2d 492 (1998) (citing, inter alia, United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 234, 94 S.Ct. 467, 38 L.Ed.2d 427 (1973); Chimel, 395 U.S. at 762-63, 89 S.Ct. 2034).

The Court in Belton applied those rationales to the arrest of an "occupant" of an automobile. See Belton, 453 U.S. at 460, 101 S.Ct. 2860. In Belton, a police officer stopped four men, who had sped past the officer. Id. at 455, 101 S.Ct. 2860. The officer "gave chase, overtook the speeding vehicle, and ordered its driver to pull it over to the side of the road and stop." Id. After examining the driver's license and the vehicle registration, the officer determined that none of the men owned the vehicle. Id. During that time, the officer also smelled burnt marijuana and saw, on the floor of the car, an envelope marked "Supergold," which he associated with marijuana. Id. at 455-56, 101 S.Ct. 2860. Accordingly, the officer directed the men to get out of the car and arrested them for unlawful possession of marijuana. Id. at 456, 101 S.Ct. 2860. After they exited the vehicle, the officer patted down each of them and "`split them into four separate areas of the Thruway ... so they would not be in physical touching area of each other.'" Id. The officer then searched the passenger compartment; he found Belton's jacket on the back seat, unzipped one of the pockets of the jacket, and found cocaine. Id.

The Supreme Court rejected Belton's argument that the search of the passenger compartment of the car exceeded the permissible scope of the search incident to his arrest. The Court began its analysis by observing that for the protection of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to be realized, courts must fashion a clear set of rules that allow police officers to easily determine in most situations "whether an invasion of privacy is justified in the interest of law enforcement." Id. at 458, 101 S.Ct. 2860 (internal quotation marks omitted). Thus, the Court reasoned, "[a] single, familiar standard is essential to guide police officers, who have only limited time and expertise to reflect on and balance the social and individual interests involved in the specific circumstances they confront. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).

The Court then noted the difficulty courts had experienced in fashioning such a rule in the context of an automobile search incident to an arrest:

While the Chimel case established that...