United States v. Gaines

• Decision Date: 27 January 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–4032.,11–4032.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. Travis GAINES, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

668 F.3d 170

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.Travis GAINES, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 11–4032.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: Dec. 7, 2011.Decided: Jan. 27, 2012.

ARGUED: Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Sapna Mirchandani, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Jonathan Biran, Appellate Chief, Ayn B. Ducao, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. James Wyda, Federal Public Defender, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before NIEMEYER, AGEE, and WYNN, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge AGEE wrote the majority opinion, in which Judge WYNN joined. Judge NIEMEYER wrote a dissenting opinion.

OPINION

AGEE, Circuit Judge:

The Government appeals from the district court's order granting Travis Gaines' motion to suppress a firearm seized by police following an unlawful stop of a vehicle in which he was a passenger. The district court suppressed the gun on the basis that it was “fruit of the poisonous tree,” while the Government maintains that intervening events, i.e., acts of assault and resisting arrest committed by Gaines, purged the illegality of the stop and rendered the firearm admissible. For the following reasons, we affirm the district court's order granting the motion to suppress.

I.

On the afternoon of January 26, 2010, Baltimore City police officers Jimmy Shetterly, Frank Schneider, and Manuel Moro were in a marked police vehicle on patrol in the vicinity of Mosher Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, in Baltimore. The officers observed a white Ford Crown Victoria approaching Mosher Street on Pennsylvania Avenue from the opposite direction. Officer Moro, who was seated in the rear compartment of the police vehicle, later testified that as the Crown Victoria neared the Mosher Street intersection, he observed (from the other side of the intersection) a crack in the Crown Victoria's windshield and informed the other officers.

Officers Schneider and Shetterly testified that after the Crown Victoria turned right onto Mosher Street, they followed in the police vehicle and also observed the crack in the windshield. The police activated their vehicle's emergency lights and pulled over the Crown Victoria. In the course of the ensuing vehicle stop, Officer Shetterly observed Gaines (who was a passenger in the rear of the Crown Victoria) moving around in his seat and trying to climb over the front seats, despite commands to stop. Officer Shetterly then ordered Gaines to exit the vehicle and immediately began to pat him down.

As Officer Shetterly began to pat down Gaines in the area of Gaines' waistband, the officer testified that “[a]s I was reaching with my right hand, I could feel the trigger guard and the handle of a firearm. At that time, I yelled ‘gun’ very loudly to alert the officers of the other present danger.” (J.A. 39.) Gaines then assaulted Shetterly, striking him in the face with his elbow. As Gaines turned to flee, Officer Shetterly clearly observed a silver firearm with a black handle in Gaines' waistband. Gaines then punched Officer Schneider before he was subdued by the officers.

Officers Schneider and Shetterly pushed Gaines into the open trunk of the Crown Victoria as he continued to struggle. When the officers were eventually able to handcuff Gaines and pull him from the trunk, Officer Shetterly observed the firearm fall from Gaines' waistband into the trunk. The police placed Gaines under arrest and seized the firearm, a .380 semi-automatic pistol. ¹

A federal grand jury in United States District Court for The District of Maryland indicted Gaines on one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Prior to trial, Gaines moved to suppress the firearm on the grounds that the stop and subsequent search of his person violated the Fourth Amendment.

At a hearing on the motion to suppress, the district court heard testimony from Officers Shetterly, Schneider, and Moro who testified as to their observation of the cracked windshield and the traffic stop. Officer Shetterly testified that after he observed Gaines making furtive movements in the back seat of the Crown Victoria, he ordered Gaines out of the car and conducted a pat down. He testified that as he reached the waistband he “could feel the trigger guard and the handle of a firearm,” and “yelled ‘gun.’ ” (J.A. 39.)

After extensive argument by both parties, the district court granted Gaines' motion to suppress. The court initially concluded that the traffic stop was not supported by reasonable suspicion and was accordingly unlawful. The court found “as a factual matter that the officers could not have seen the very slight crack in the lower right portion of the Crown Victoria's windshield.” (J.A. 279.) Important to the court's decision was its belief that Officer Moro could not see the crack from the rear seat of the police vehicle, past the two officers in the front seat, across an intersection, through the tinted rear window of the Crown Victoria as the Crown Victoria turned right, away from the officer. For the same reasons, the court declined to credit the testimony of Officers Shetterly and Schneider that they also saw the crack in the Crown Victoria's windshield. Thus, the court determined, the Government failed to establish that the traffic stop was based on reasonable and articulable suspicion of unlawful conduct. On appeal, the Government concedes the traffic stop and consequent pat down of Gaines were unlawful.

The district court then held that Gaines' assault of Officers Shetterly and Schneider did not purge the taint of the unlawful stop in a manner sufficient to allow the gun to be admitted into evidence against Gaines. Critical to the court's analysis was the “clear and undisputed” sequence of events that led to the seizure of the firearm: Gaines was ordered out of the vehicle and patted down, the gun was discovered, and only then did Gaines attack the officers. ² (J.A. 282.) The court found dispositive the fact that the firearm was discovered by Officer Shetterly as a direct result of the illegal stop, and not as a result of Gaines' subsequent illegal behavior assaulting the officers. The district court accordingly granted Gaines' motion to suppress.

The Government moved for reconsideration, which the district court denied. The Government noted a timely interlocutory appeal of the district court's orders granting the motion to suppress and denying reconsideration. We have jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 3731 para. 2 (extending jurisdiction to the courts of appeals over interlocutory appeals filed by the United States “from a decision or order of a district court suppressing or excluding evidence”).³

II.

On appeal, the Government argues that the taint of the unlawful stop was purged when Gaines assaulted Officers Shetterly and Schneider. Because the Government does not challenge the district court's conclusion that the initial stop and patdown was unlawful, we assume that it was. Nevertheless, the Government, relying heavily on United States v. Sprinkle, 106 F.3d 613 (4th Cir.1997), claims that the firearm is admissible notwithstanding the illegality of the traffic stop. The thrust of the Government's argument is that the assault broke the chain of causation resulting from the illegal stop. As a result, the Government contends that because the firearm had not been physically seized when the assault took place, it could later be lawfully seized pursuant to a valid arrest for the assault upon the police officers and introduced as evidence against Gaines on the firearm charge.

A.

On appeal of the district court's grant of a motion to suppress, we review the court's findings of fact for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo. United States v. Jones, 356 F.3d 529, 533 (4th Cir.2004).

B.

The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures[.]” U.S. Const. amend. IV. When evidence is discovered as a result of a Fourth Amendment violation, it is, generally speaking, subject to suppression under the exclusionary rule. United States v. Andrews, 577 F.3d 231, 235 (4th Cir.2009). Not all evidence discovered as a result of a Fourth Amendment violation, though, is “fruit of the poisonous tree” and necessarily inadmissible at trial. Evidence derived from an illegal search may be admissible depending upon “whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality the evidence to which the instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality, or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.” Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 488, 83 S.Ct. 407, 9 L.Ed.2d 441 (1963) (quotation marks and citation omitted).

Thus, where there is sufficient attenuation between the unlawful search and the acquisition of evidence, the “taint” of that unlawful search is purged. To determine whether the derivative evidence has been purged of the taint of the unlawful search, we consider several factors, including: (1) the amount of time between the illegal action and the acquisition of the evidence; (2) the presence of intervening circumstances; and (3) the purpose and flagrancy of the official misconduct. Brown v. Illinois, 422 U.S. 590, 603–04, 95 S.Ct. 2254, 45 L.Ed.2d 416 (1975). The question presented in this case is whether Gaines' commission of a crime after discovery of the gun by police, but before its seizure, is an intervening circumstance sufficient to purge the taint of the admitted illegal search. Under the facts of this case, we conclude that it is not such an intervening circumstance.⁴

In Sprinkle, cited extensively by the parties, we analyzed similar (but not identical) facts and articulated...