United States v. Finley

• Decision Date: 09 January 2023
• Docket Number: 22-1014, No. 22-1052
• Citation: 56 F.4th 1159
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee v. Ronald Donte FINLEY, Jr., Defendant - Appellant United States of America, Plaintiff - Appellee v. Jarvae Josiah Somerville, Defendant - Appellant
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

56 F.4th 1159

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee

v.Ronald Donte FINLEY, Jr., Defendant - Appellant

United States of America, Plaintiff - Appellee

v.Jarvae Josiah Somerville, Defendant - Appellant

No. 22-1014

No. 22-1052

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: October 19, 2022

Filed: January 9, 2023

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant, Ronald Finley Jr. and appeared on the brief was Robert H. Meyers, AFPD, of Minneapolis, MN.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellant, Jarvae Somerville and appeared on the brief was Ryan M. Pacyga, of Minneapolis, MN.

Counsel who presented argument on behalf of the appellee and appeared on the brief was David Genrich, AUSA, of Minneapolis, MN.

Before SMITH, Chief Judge, BENTON and SHEPHERD, Circuit Judges.

SHEPHERD, Circuit Judge.

Ronald Donte Finley, Jr., and Jarvae Josiah Somerville (together, Appellants) were each convicted of unlawfully possessing a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). Appellants challenge their convictions, arguing that the district court erred by denying their motions to suppress the firearms because law enforcement discovered the firearms as a result of unlawful arrests. Somerville also appeals the admission of certain testimony at trial and the district court's decision to withhold juror questionnaires that were completed as part of voir dire. Having jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm Finley's conviction and remand Somerville's case to the district court for the limited purpose of making the completed questionnaires available to the parties and determining whether juror bias prejudiced Somerville.

I.

Minneapolis law enforcement issued a "probable cause pickup" (PC pickup)¹ for Finley and Somerville in connection with a May 2020 drive-by shooting. In July 2020, law enforcement surveilled Appellants going to a south Minneapolis restaurant. Law enforcement witnessed Finley and Somerville exit the restaurant; Finley entered the passenger side of a vehicle while Somerville returned to the restaurant. Law enforcement decided to arrest Appellants based on the PC pickup. Law enforcement surrounded the vehicle with weapons drawn. The officers wore plain clothes and black tactical vests that displayed a badge on the chest and "Police" on the front and back. An officer opened the driver-side door and ordered Finley to put his hands up. Startled by the interaction, Finley exited the passenger-side door and fled. Law enforcement continued to order Finley to put his hands up and to get on the ground. Officers quickly apprehended Finley and subsequently recovered a firearm from the passenger side of the vehicle.

Meanwhile, a separate team of law enforcement approached Somerville inside the restaurant. Officers were dressed similarly to those outside of the restaurant but uttered no commands when approaching Somerville. Somerville fled from law enforcement through the kitchen and into a restroom. Officers forced their way into the restroom and struggled with Somerville. During the skirmish, one officer exclaimed that Somerville was reaching for his waistband and felt a gun on his person. Somerville was eventually subdued and apprehended. Law enforcement discovered a firearm in the restroom. A subsequent search of Somerville's apartment produced ammunition matching the firearm.

Both Finley and Somerville were charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. Appellants each filed a motion to suppress the firearms found incident to their respective arrests, challenging the probable cause supporting their arrests. Specifically, Appellants argued that the PC pickups did not provide law enforcement with probable cause to arrest them. While the Government argued that the PC pickups (and the underlying facts of the May 2020 drive-by shooting) supported probable cause, it alternatively argued that Appellants’ respective flights provided law enforcement with independent probable cause for arrest under Minn. Stat. § 609.487, subdiv. 6, which states:

Whoever, for the purpose of avoiding arrest, detention, or investigation ... attempts to evade or elude a peace officer, who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty, by means of running, hiding, or by any other means except fleeing in a motor vehicle, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Appellants contested the Government's alternative theory, both arguing that they could not have fled from arrest because they were not aware that they were being approached by law enforcement. Appellants also argued that they had been unlawfully seized prior to fleeing pursuant to law enforcement's execution of the PC pickups. Somerville additionally argued that his flight was not sufficiently attenuated from the execution of the PC pickup such that it was "purged" of the taint of the unlawful execution. He also argues that that he had a right to flee from the allegedly unlawful arrest.

The district court, adopting the report and recommendation of the magistrate judge, found that the PC pickups were not warrants and that the factual basis supporting Appellants’ PC pickups was otherwise insufficient to establish probable cause for their arrests. However, the district court agreed with the Government that Appellants’ respective flights from arrest gave law enforcement an independent basis to arrest them. It rejected Appellants’ arguments to the contrary, noting that Appellants’ recognition of law enforcement was irrelevant because the probable-cause test is analyzed from the objective point of view of the arresting officer. It also found that Appellants were not seized during the initial execution of the PC pickups because neither Appellant submitted to law enforcement's show of authority. The district court found that the attenuation doctrine did not apply to Somerville's arrest and that even if it did, his flight constituted an "intervening circumstance" sufficient to purge any prior unlawful act. Finally, the district court found that Somerville did not have a right to flee law enforcement's execution of the PC pickup. Accordingly, it denied Appellants’ motions to suppress.

Prior to trial, the Government filed a motion in limine, seeking to admit evidence of the May 2020 drive-by shooting investigation and the PC pickups for the purpose of contextualizing Appellants’ arrests. As relevant to this appeal, Somerville opposed the Government's motion, arguing that the evidence was irrelevant and that its probative value was substantially outweighed by its prejudicial effect, in violation of Federal Rules of Evidence 402 and 403, respectively. The district court granted the Government's motion, stating that the evidence was necessary to provide context and that a limiting instruction would be given.

Moving forward to trial, the district court discussed the matter of voir dire with the parties, specifically as to how the process might require modification in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The district court determined that it would use "jury questionnaires" that would be sent out to prospective jurors before formal voir dire. In the district court's view, "a jury questionnaire is a good thing to have [during the COVID-19 pandemic], because it becomes helpful to [the parties], it becomes helpful to everybody ... in the matter, including what can lead to some very obvious cause strikes." The district court provided the parties with its proposed questionnaire and allowed the parties to propose changes to the questions, some of which were adopted.

The questionnaires were sent to the pool of prospective jurors and at least a portion of the pool returned responses. However, the district court declined to release the completed questionnaires to the parties and informed the parties that voir dire would instead be in court and oral. Believing that jurors might be more forthcoming in written answers than in in-court statements, Appellants nonetheless moved the district court to release the completed questionnaires for the parties to review or, in the alternative, to hold the same under seal for purposes of challenging the decision on appeal. The district court denied the motion in part, stating:

I believe that the oral inquiry and the responses that we will get from jurors as they are called will be more appropriate and will be appropriate, where I'm afraid that inadvertently there may have been some what I call inadvertent comments, they were gratuitous comments, made that are not appropriate for any courtroom and the result is that it is appropriate for the [district court] just to keep them under seal.

R. Doc. 187, at 4-5. Then, the district court continued by conducting oral voir dire. The district court exclusively conducted voir dire but allowed the parties to submit questions throughout the process. The district court posed all of the questions submitted by the parties.

A jury was empaneled, and trial ensued. The jury convicted both Appellants. Appellants appeal their convictions. Both challenge the denial of their motions to suppress the firearms, arguing that law enforcement discovered the firearms incident to unlawful arrests. Somerville also challenges the Government's references to the May 2020 drive-by shooting investigation at trial and the district court's decision to withhold the completed questionnaires from the parties. We address each Appellant's arguments in turn.

II.

On appeal, Finley argues only that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the firearm found incident to his arrest because law enforcement lacked probable cause to arrest him based on Minn. Stat. § 609.487, subdiv. 6.² Specifically, he argues that a reasonable person would not be justified in concluding that he intended to avoid arrest by fleeing because he was unaware that the arresting officers were in fact law enforcement. "We review the denial of [a] motion to suppress under a mixed standard of review. ‘We review the district court's findings of fact under the clearly...