U.S. v. Trimble

• Decision Date: 18 February 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-1191,92-1191
• Citation: 986 F.2d 394
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Christopher TRIMBLE, also known as Christopher Lewis, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 394

986 F.2d 394

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Christopher TRIMBLE, also known as Christopher Lewis,

Defendant-Appellant.

No. 92-1191.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

Feb. 18, 1993.

Philip R. Cockerille, Denver, CO, for defendant-appellant.

Charlotte J. Mapes (Michael J. Norton, U.S. Atty. with her on the brief), Asst. U.S. Atty., Denver, CO, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before ANDERSON, BARRETT and TACHA, Circuit Judges.

BARRETT, Senior Circuit Judge.

Christopher Trimble, a/k/a Christopher T. Lewis (Trimble) was charged in a two-count indictment with possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B)(iii), and using or carrying a firearm in relation to drug trafficking in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). Trimble filed a motion to suppress evidence and statements. After a hearing, the district court denied the motion. Trimble then entered a conditional plea of guilty pursuant to a plea agreement which allowed him to pursue this appeal challenging the denial of his motion to suppress. See Fed.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2). Trimble was sentenced to a term of imprisonment of 98 months, with a supervised release of four years.

In reviewing a district court's denial of a motion to suppress, we must accept the court's findings of fact unless we determine that they are clearly erroneous. However, the ultimate determination of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution is a conclusion of law which we review de novo. United States v. Morales-Zamora, 974 F.2d 149, 151 (10th Cir.1992); United States v. Butler, 904 F.2d 1482, 1484 (10th Cir.1990); United States v. McKinnell, 888 F.2d 669, 672 (10th Cir.1989); United States v. Cooper, 733 F.2d 1360, 1364 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 467 U.S. 1255, 104 S.Ct. 3543, 82 L.Ed.2d 847 (1984).

Facts

The following recitation of facts is consistent with the findings of the district court which were based upon evidence adduced at the hearing on Trimble's motion to suppress. That hearing was conducted on March 20 and 23, 1992. The court heard testimony from Denver Police Officers Gerald L. Ford and Craig Thomas Moen; Denver Police Detectives Terry Vincent Demmel and Kerry Rich; Special Agent Kenneth Charles Coffey of the United States Treasury Department, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms; Ms. Audrey Jarene Chapman, common law wife of Trimble; and Trimble.

On October 2, 1991, Denver Police Department Officers Ford and Moen, fully uniformed, were on duty in a marked police car when, about 10:40 a.m., they received a police radio call that a drug transaction was occurring in the 1400 block of Verbena Street. Moen, the driver, proceeded to the area immediately. When the officers arrived in the neighborhood, they observed a blue Ford Mustang containing three passengers being operated with expired license plates. The officers testified that it is routine police work to stop vehicles operating with expired license plates.

The patrol car, with its overhead lights on, made a U-turn and followed the Ford Mustang a short distance. The Ford Mustang being driven by Paul Estrada, stopped about mid-block in the 1300 block of Verbena Street. The police car stopped instantaneously. The passenger door of the Ford Mustang opened and Trimble, whom Officer Ford recognized, got out and walked a few steps away from the vehicle.

Ford exited the patrol vehicle and ordered Trimble to stop. Trimble looked back at Officer Ford but continued to walk. About twelve feet from the stopped vehicle, Trimble threw what appeared to be a brown vinyl or leather bag to the ground about five feet away from his person. Ford, with his firearm drawn, patted Trimble down and then observed Trimble put his hand to his waistband and pull out a container or pill bottle and begin to throw it. Ford grabbed the vial, put a handhold on Trimble, and advised him that he was under arrest. Ford, who had become familiar with the appearance of crack cocaine in the course of his police work, observed what he suspected to be rocks of crack cocaine in the vial.

Officer Ford took a few steps toward the brown bag on the ground. As he did, he heard a woman, later identified as Audrey Chapman, Trimble's common law wife, yelling something about giving her the money. Ford placed his foot on the bag and then picked it up. In doing so, he felt a heavy metal object inside which he believed to be a weapon. After handcuffing Trimble, Ford opened the bag and found some keys, a .25 caliber loaded semiautomatic pistol and $471 in currency. Officers Ford and Moen were not aware that, at the time of this incident, Trimble lived in a nearby home in the 1300 block of Verbena. No search warrant had been obtained for the vial, the bag or Trimble's person.

A federal complaint and arrest warrant were issued for Trimble on December 12, 1991. Thereafter, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Special Agents Coffey and Thorn went to the Denver City Jail and had Trimble released into their custody to be transported to the Marshal's Service at the federal courthouse on December 21, 1991. Because Trimble wanted to talk, Agent Thorn read him his Miranda advisements. Trimble responded that he understood his rights. The agents did not initiate any conversation with Trimble. Trimble asked the agents what was going on, and Agent Coffey informed him that he was subject to federal criminal action pertaining to the crack cocaine and the firearm. At some point during the short ride, Trimble volunteered "I ain't going to lie to you. That was my dope. That was my gun." These remarks were not in response to questioning by the agents.

District Court's Findings-Conclusion

In its written order, the district court concluded that the initial traffic stop-detention was valid and not pretextual and that Trimble had abandoned both the brown shoulder bag and the vial prior to Officer Ford seizing them:

The Defendant was initially detained in the course of a valid traffic stop, as the vehicle in which Defendant was a passenger displayed expired license plates. There was no evidence presented that the stop was pretextual. The appropriate standard for determining the propriety of a traffic stop is an objective one. This Court finds the [sic] a reasonable officer acting under similar circumstances would have made such a stop. It was also reasonable for Officer Ford to order Defendant to stop, upon seeing him alight from the back seat of the vehicle to attempt to leave the scene. When the facts and circumstances surrounding the situation are sufficient to warrant the belief by a reasonable police officer that the party to be stopped has committed or is in the process of committing an offense, the stop is appropriate. United States v. Fox, 902 F.2d 1508, 1513 (10th Cir.1990). Such a determination is based upon the totality of the circumstances at the time. United States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 428 [96 S.Ct. 820, 830, 46 L.Ed.2d 598] (1976).

This issue in particular (abandonment) was the subject of supplemental briefing. The act by the Defendant of dropping the vial, or attempting to drop the vial, is consistent with abandonment. The Court concludes that in light of all the surrounding circumstances, Defendant had abandoned both the shoulder bag and the vial prior to the officer seizing them. Where a person abandons an object, he loses his reasonable expectation of privacy and there is no search where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. United States v. Jones, 707 F.2d 1169, 1172 (10th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 859 [104 S.Ct. 184, 78 L.Ed.2d 163] (1983). Defendant's actions in this case were consistent with the abandonment of both objects, notwithstanding his contention in the supplemental brief that he intended to drop the vial at his feet. Upon retrieving the vial, Officer Ford viewed its contents without opening the vial, which he determined, as a result of his training, contained chunks of crack cocaine. No search warrant was required to open the vial, as its contents were in plain view.

(R., Vol. I, Tab 4 p. 2)

Appellate Contentions

On appeal, Trimble argues that (1) the initial stop of Trimble was illegal, (2) seizure of the pill bottle was illegal, (3) opening the pill bottle was an illegal search, (4) seizure of the bag was illegal, (5) opening of the bag was an illegal search, and (6) the statements allegedly made by Trimble on December 20, 1991, are inadmissible.

I.

Trimble does not challenge the legality of the initial stop of the Ford Mustang because of an expired license plate. See United States v. Corral, 899 F.2d 991, 994 (10th Cir.1990) (police officer's observation of an expired license plate and the initial stop valid, not pretextual). And the district court's oral finding/conclusion that the initial stop was not a pretextual stop is not challenged on appeal.

Trimble contends, however, that Officer Ford unreasonably expanded his lawful authority when he stopped Trimble at gunpoint after Trimble exited the Ford Mustang and took a few steps away from the car. He argues that neither Ford nor Moen could articulate any reasonable suspicion for stopping him, patting him down, seizing a tiny bottle from his hand, or seizing and opening the bag which he had thrown to the ground. He relies on United States v. Walker, 933 F.2d 812 (10th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 1168, 117 L.Ed.2d 414 (1992) and United States v. Guzman, 864 F.2d 1512 (10th Cir.1988) for the rule that a stop for a traffic violation cannot be expanded to investigate other crimes unless the police officers have a reasonable suspicion, based on rational inferences from articulable facts, that the suspect is engaged in criminal activity.

This argument overlooks the possibility that Officers Ford and Moen may have been informed during the course of their investigation of the expired license plate violation, that Paul Estrada was driving the Ford...