United States v. Hastings

• Decision Date: 17 July 2012
• Docket Number: No. 11–2994.,11–2994.
• Citation: 685 F.3d 724
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Robert Ellis HASTINGS, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

685 F.3d 724

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,

v.Robert Ellis HASTINGS, Appellant.

No. 11–2994.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: March 16, 2012.

Filed: July 17, 2012.

Daniel L. Gerdts, Golden Valley, MN, for appellant.

James Lackner, Assistant United States Attorney, St. Paul, MN, for appellee.

Before MURPHY, BRIGHT, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

Robert Ellis Hastings entered a plea of guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm conditioned on his right to appeal the district court's ¹ denial of his motions to suppress evidence. Hastings now appeals, and we affirm.

In September 2010, law enforcement officers received a tip that David Paquin, suspected of robbing a bank with the aid of a note saying he had a gun, was hiding in a house on 75th Street in Rochester, Minnesota. Officers commenced surveillance of the house, and on September 13, 2010 Detective Michael Lavigne with the Wabasha County Sheriff's Office began following a Honda automobile that left the premises. At that time, he did not know the identity of the Honda's occupants. While following the Honda, Detective Lavigne, who was driving an unmarked vehicle, was in contact with Deputy Christopher Wallace, who was in a marked patrol vehicle and available to assist if the driver committed a traffic infraction or to approach the Honda's occupants and “strike up a conversation” when the occupants reached their destination.

At the suppression hearing, Detective Lavigne testified that, as he followed the Honda at approximately 8:45 p.m., the weather was clear and he did not recall seeing other vehicles on the road. The Honda was traveling at approximately fifty miles per hour in the far left of the three southbound lanes of the highway when, while positioned “almost directly across from” an exit ramp leading to another highway, the Honda's driver signaled, abruptly moved across the other two lanes of traffic, and “barely ma[de] the off ramp.” At this point, Detective Lavigne instructed Deputy Wallace to stop the Honda for executing an unsafe change of course. After Deputy Wallace stopped the Honda, the passenger—later identified as Paquin—fled on foot and Deputy Wallace gave chase. Hastings, the driver of the Honda, remained with the vehicle, and Detective Lavigne approached him and began asking questions. During Detective Lavigne's interaction with Hastings, Detective Lavigne heard gun shots—which he later learned resulted from Deputy Wallace shooting Paquin after Paquin approached him with a knife—and proceeded to handcuff Hastings and place him in the marked patrol vehicle because Detective Lavigne intended to go to the scene of the shooting.

Agent David Schafer with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension ordered that the Honda remain at the scene because it needed to be “electronically mapped and photographed” and retained as evidence. Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Jamie Rohrbaugh, who had been investigating the bank robbery, also decided to hold the vehicle so he could get a warrant to search it for evidence of the bank robbery. The Honda eventually was taken to the Olmsted County Law Enforcement Center. On September 14, officers obtained and executed a warrant to search the Honda and discovered a handgun and a rifle in the vehicle. The handgun later served as the basis for Hastings'sfelon-in-possession-of-a-firearm conviction.

Meanwhile, Chief Deputy Mark Darnell determined that Hastings should be detained for questioning. Thus, about an hour after the traffic stop, law enforcement personnel transported Hastings to the Adult Detention Center of the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office and placed him in a cell. At some point before 4:00 a.m. on the following morning, September 14, Sergeant Scott Behrns delivered a citation to the booking deputy at the detention center for Hastings's conduct of driving with a suspended license and instructed the deputy that Hastings should be held to see a judge in the morning regarding the citation.

After Hastings was charged in federal court with being a felon in possession of a firearm, he moved to suppress certain evidence that the Government possessed. The district court denied his motions, and Hastings pled guilty, conditioned on his right to appeal the suppression issues. Hastings now argues that (1) there was no probable cause or reasonable suspicion to justify the traffic stop, (2) the period between his initial detention and the time he was charged with driving with a suspended license was unreasonably long, and (3) the firearms were not within the scope of the vehicle search warrant.

We review “the district court's factual determinations in support of its denial of a motion to suppress for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo.” United States v. Hogan, 539 F.3d 916, 921 (8th Cir.2008) (quoting United States v. Harper, 466 F.3d 634, 643 (8th Cir.2006)). “We affirm a denial of a motion to suppress unless the district court's decision ‘is unsupported by substantial evidence, based on an erroneous interpretation of applicable law, or, based on the entire record, it is clear a mistake was made.’ ” United States v. Bay, 662 F.3d 1033, 1035 (8th Cir.2011) (quoting United States v. Annis, 446 F.3d 852, 855 (8th Cir.2006)).

Hastings first contends that there was no justification for the traffic stop because the driving behavior that Detective Lavigne described does not constitute an unsafe change of course under Minnesota law, which makes it illegal to “turn a vehicle from a direct course or move right or left upon a highway unless and until the movement can be made with reasonable safety after giving an appropriate signal.” Minn.Stat. § 169.19, subdiv. 4. Hastings asserts that his driving was reasonably safe within the meaning of the statute in light of the lack of traffic on the road and Detective Lavigne's ability to follow him onto the ramp.

“[A] traffic stop is reasonable if it is supported by either probable cause or an articulable and reasonable suspicion that a traffic violation has occurred.” United States v. Washington, 455 F.3d 824, 826 (8th Cir.2006). “[T]he validity of a stop depends on whether the officer's actions were objectively reasonable in the circumstances, and in mistake cases the question is simply whether the mistake, whether of law or fact, was an objectively reasonable one.” United States v. Martin, 411 F.3d 998, 1001 (8th Cir.2005) (quoting United States v. Smart, 393 F.3d 767, 770 (8th Cir.2005)). We need not determine whether Hastings's driving in fact constituted an unsafe change of course within the meaning of the Minnesota statute because it was objectively reasonable for Detective Lavigne to conclude that it was unsafe for Hastings, while traveling at approximately fifty miles per hour and “almost directly across” from the ramp, to abruptly cross two highway lanes, “just barely mak[ing] the off ramp.” See United States v. Rodriguez–Lopez, 444 F.3d 1020, 1022–23 (8th Cir.2006) (declining to determine the precise meaning of a state traffic law where “the resolution of the case turn[ed] upon whether the [officer's] belief that the statute was violated was objectively reasonable not whether it was in fact violated”). Moreover, even assuming that Hastings's abrupt maneuver did not pose a safety threat to other vehicles due to the absence of observable traffic (other than Detective Lavigne's vehicle), it was objectively reasonable to conclude that the requirement that a change of course be executed with “reasonable safety” encompasses the safety of a driver and his passenger. Therefore, for purposes of Hastings's motion to suppress, the traffic stop was justified.

Second, Hastings argues that the officers unlawfully subjected him to “prolonged detention.” ²See United States v. Fuse, 391 F.3d 924, 927 (8th Cir.2004) (stating that a law enforcement “officer cannot continue to detain a motorist after the initial stop is completed, unless the officer has ‘a reasonably articulable suspicion for believing’ criminal activity is afoot” (quoting United States v. Beck, 140 F.3d 1129, 1134 (8th Cir.1998))). The district court did not reach this question but simply determined that the firearms seized from the Honda were not the fruit of the...