U.S.A v. Young

• Decision Date: 28 June 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-4117,08-4118.,08-4117
• Citation: 609 F.3d 348
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,v.Darnell Anthony YOUNG, a/k/a DJ Nelly Nell, a/k/a Nelly, Defendant-Appellant.United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellant,v.Darnell Anthony Young, a/k/a DJ Nelly Nell, a/k/a Nelly, Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

609 F.3d 348

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.Darnell Anthony YOUNG, a/k/a DJ Nelly Nell, a/k/a Nelly, Defendant-Appellant.

United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellant,

v.Darnell Anthony Young, a/k/a DJ Nelly Nell, a/k/a Nelly, Defendant-Appellee.

Nos. 08-4117, 08-4118.

United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit.

Argued May 11, 2010.

Decided June 28, 2010.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

ARGUED: William A. Mitchell, Jr., Brennan, Sullivan & McKenna, LLP, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant/Cross-Appellee. Tonya Kelly Kowitz, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant. ON BRIEF: Alexander Zeno, Washington, D.C., for Appellant/Cross-Appellee. Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, Jason M. Weinstein, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee/Cross-Appellant.

Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, and NIEMEYER and AGEE, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded by published opinion. Chief Judge TRAXLER wrote the opinion, in which Judge NIEMEYER and Judge AGEE joined.

OPINION

TRAXLER, Chief Judge:

Darnell Young was convicted of drug-related charges and received a within-Guidelines sentence of 136 months' imprisonment. Young appeals his convictions and sentence, and the government cross-appeals the sentence imposed by the district court. We reject Young's challenges, but we agree with the government that the district court erred when it concluded that the drug-quantity determinations made by the jury prevented the court from finding a different quantity at sentencing. Accordingly, we affirm Young's convictions, vacate his sentence, and remand for resentencing.

I.

After a lengthy investigation, the government in October 2006 indicted Young on various drug and weapons charges, alleging that Young was part of a conspiracy to distribute cocaine that operated from 1999 through 2004. On November 1, 2006, the government obtained a warrant authorizing Young's arrest. After the warrant was issued, the government ultimately determined that Young lived in a townhouse in Owings Mills, Maryland.

On November 6, 2006, federal law enforcement agents established surveillance of Young's townhouse to determine if he was there and could be arrested. The agents watched a silver SUV park near the townhouse and saw a man later identified as Errol Wynter approach the house. Wynter knocked on the door and the door was quickly opened. While Wynter was inside the townhouse, the agents checked the license plate number of the SUV and learned that it was titled to a car dealership associated with someone known to law enforcement as “Clive,” who was believed to be Young's cocaine supplier. After about five minutes, Wynter emerged from the townhouse carrying a red plastic bag. Agents stopped Wynter shortly after he left the townhouse and found in the vehicle five cell phones and the red plastic bag, which contained approximately $40,000 packaged in bundles. The agents seized the money and allowed Wynter to leave.

Shortly after Wynter was stopped, the agents obtained a key to Young's townhouse from the complex's leasing office and then proceeded to Young's townhouse. The agents repeatedly knocked loudly on the door and announced themselves as police. When Young did not answer the door after approximately twenty seconds, an agent used the key and opened the door. When the agents entered, they saw Young on the stairs, which were adjacent to the front door. Young did not comply when the agents ordered him to lie on the floor, so the agents forced him to the ground, removed a loaded gun from the waistband of his pants, and handcuffed him.¹

The kitchen was just a few feet away from where the officers entered the house, and an open plastic bag was on the kitchen island in plain view. The agents could see into the bag and saw that it contained two brick-shaped items composed of a white powder that appeared to be cocaine. The agents then applied for a search warrant, and they waited at the house for the warrant. After receiving the search warrant, the agents searched the house and found two kilograms of cocaine in the plastic bag in the kitchen, approximately three kilograms of cocaine in the washing machine, $17,000 in cash, and seven cell phones and chargers. One of those cell phones had been used only from October 12, 2006, through November 4, 2006-two days before Young was arrested. That phone had been used to make and receive calls from only one number, a number that belonged to one of the cell phones seized from Wynter.

The day after Young was arrested, the government obtained a superseding indictment, changing the end-date of the conspiracy to on or about November 6, 2006, the date of Young's arrest, and adding Wynter as a co-defendant, who by then had been identified as cocaine supplier “Clive.” Although the indictment alleged a seven-year conspiracy, the government at trial focused only on the relationship between Young and Wynter and only presented evidence recovered from Young's house on November 6, and from Wynter when he was stopped on November 6 and when he was arrested two days later. Wynter eventually pleaded guilty, and Young proceeded to trial.

At trial, Young sought to suppress the evidence seized from his house, arguing that the agents did not properly knock and announce their presence before entering his townhouse to execute the arrest warrant. The district court denied the motion, concluding that the officers complied with the knock-and-announce requirements before entering the house and saw in plain view the cocaine on the kitchen counter when they entered.

The jury convicted Young of conspiracy to distribute cocaine see 21 U.S.C.A. § 846 (West 1999), and distribution of and possession with intent to distribute cocaine see 21 U.S.C.A. § 841(a) (West 1999), but acquitted Young of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, see 18 U.S.C.A. § 924(c) (West 2000 & Supp.2010). By way of a special verdict form, the jury concluded that, as to both the conspiracy and substantive drug counts, at least 500 grams but less than five kilograms of cocaine were involved.

The presentence report prepared for Young's sentencing concluded that Young was involved in the distribution of at least 50 but less than 150 kilograms of cocaine. After applying two offense-level enhancements, the PSR determined that Young's total offense level should be 40, which, when combined with Young's category I criminal history, yielded an advisory sentencing range of 292-365 months.

At the sentencing hearing, the government sought to present evidence to establish that Young was involved in the distribution of between 90 and 100 kilograms of cocaine. The district court, however, announced its intention to sentence Young based on the drug quantity found by the jury, not the quantity recommended in the PSR. The court stated that because the jury had concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that the case involved at least 500 grams but less than five kilograms of cocaine, the court was not free to increase Young's punishment within the statutory maximum by concluding, under a lower standard of proof, that a greater quantity of drugs was involved. To preserve an adequate record for appeal, the court permitted the government to proffer its drug-quantity evidence, and the court made a finding that the proffered evidence would have established that Young's offenses involved between 90 and 100 kilograms of cocaine.

Based on the jury's drug-quantity determination, the district court set Young's base offense level at 30. The court added a two-level enhancement for possession of a firearm, but rejected the government's request for a two-level obstruction of justice enhancement, for a total base offense level of 32. With Young's category I criminal history, the advisory Guidelines sentencing range was 121-150 months, and the district court sentenced Young to 136 months. If the district court had accepted the drug quantity established by the government's proffer, Young's offense level would have been 38 and his advisory sentencing range would have been 235-293 months.

II.

We first consider Young's various challenges to his convictions and sentence.

A.

Young contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the evidence seized from his townhouse. The warrant for Young's arrest gave police the authority to enter his house to effect the arrest, provided that they had reason to believe he was present in the house. See Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 603, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980) (“[F]or Fourth Amendment purposes, an arrest warrant founded on probable cause implicitly carries with it the limited authority to enter a dwelling in which the suspect lives when there is reason to believe the suspect is within.”). Young does not contend that the arrest warrant was invalid, or that the police lacked reason to believe he was inside the house. Instead, Young argues that the evidence should be suppressed because the police when executing the arrest warrant failed to properly knock and announce their presence before entering his house.

The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. See U.S. Const. amend. IV. One element of the reasonableness inquiry is the requirement that police knock, announce their presence, and wait a reasonable time before entering a house to execute a search or arrest warrant. See Wilson v. Arkansas, 514 U.S. 927, 929, 115 S.Ct. 1914, 131 L.Ed.2d 976 (1995). This constitutional requirement is reflected in 18 U.S.C.A. § 3109, which provides that an officer “may break open any outer or inner door or window of a house ... to execute a search warrant, if, after notice of his authority and purpose, he is refused admittance.” 18 U.S.C.A. § 3109 (West 2000); see United States v. Kennedy, 32 F.3d 876, 882 (4th Cir.1994).² Although an officer may not forcibly...