United States v. Laster
| Decision Date | 16 July 2021 |
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL ACTION 1:21-cr-00076-SDG-RGV |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. ANTONIO JAMAR LASTER |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Georgia |
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
v.
ANTONIO JAMAR LASTER
CRIMINAL ACTION No. 1:21-cr-00076-SDG-RGV
United States District Court, N.D. Georgia, Atlanta Division
July 16, 2021
MAGISTRATE TUDGE'S REPORT, RECOMMENDATION, AND ORDER
RUSSELL G. VINEYARD UNITED STATES MAGISTRATE JUDGE
Defendant Antonio Jamar Laster ("Laster") is charged in a two-count indictment with conspiracy to knowingly and intentionally possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846, and with knowingly and intentionally attempting to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. [Doc. 70].[1] After the extended deadline for filing motions had passed, see [Doc. 81], Laster filed a motion to suppress statements, [Doc. 85], a motion to suppress evidence, [Doc. 86], and a motion to show cause of delay, [Doc. 87], all of which the government opposes, [Docs. 88, 90, & 95]. For the reasons that follow, the undersigned finds
that Laster has not shown good cause for the untimely filing of his motions to suppress, so his motion to show cause of delay, [Doc. 87], is DENIED, and it is RECOMMENDED that his motions to suppress statements and evidence, [Docs. 85 & 86], be DENIED as untimely, and alternatively, for lack of merit.
I. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
On October 9, 2020, law enforcement agents of Homeland Security Investigations ("HSI"), who were conducting surveillance of a house in Marietta, Georgia, as part of a joint investigation of methamphetamine trafficking with agents of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ("GBI"), observed two Hispanic males leave the house driving a Toyota Yaris, proceed to a grocery store parking lot at 3595 Canton Road in Marietta, park directly beside a Volvo sedan and hand to the driver of the Volvo a black plastic bag. [Doc. 88-1 at 12-13] .[2] The driver of the Volvo placed the black plastic bag in the trunk of the vehicle. [Id. at 13]. The Yaris departed the parking lot immediately after the exchange, and agents later observed that it returned to the house under surveillance. [Id.]. About ten minutes
after the exchange, the Volvo departed the parking lot and subsequently was stopped for a traffic violation. [Id]. The driver of the Volvo consented to a search of the vehicle and law enforcement agents found inside the trunk a black plastic bag containing a kilogram of methamphetamine. [Id. at 13-14]. The driver waived her Miranda[3] rights and agreed to speak with law enforcement agents, and she stated that she traveled to the grocery store on Canton Road in Marietta to pick up a "brick" of methamphetamine which two Hispanic males in a dark colored car gave to her in the parking lot. [Id.] at 14 (internal marks omitted)].
While conducting surveillance at the house in Marietta on October 9, 2020, agents observed the Yaris and another vehicle, a Toyota Camry, parked there, and the Camry departed the house later that afternoon and traveled to Cherokee County.[4] [Id. at 13-14]. Agents followed the Camry, which was occupied by two Hispanic males, as it proceeded north on Canton Road to a parking lot at 9740 Main Street, Woodstock, Georgia, where it pulled into a parking space next to a blue Nissan Sentra that had a Tennessee license plate. [Id. at 5, 14]. Believing that a narcotics transaction was underway, GBI Special Agent in Charge Ken Howard
("Agent Howard"), one of the agents who had followed the Camry after it departed the house under surveillance in Marietta, [Id. at 5], approached the driver's side of the Camry and observed the passenger was holding a plastic grocery bag in his lap that Agent Howard suspected contained methamphetamine, [id. at 5, 14]. HSI Special Agents John Cwieka and Timothy Everhart approached the passenger side of the Camry and immediately saw another bag on the front passenger floorboard between the passenger's feet that they recognized contained methamphetamine. [Id.]. The two occupants of the Camry were removed from the vehicle and placed in handcuffs. [Id. at 5].
Agent Howard then turned to the driver of the Sentra that was parked next to the Camry and identified himself as a law enforcement officer and told the driver, later identified as defendant Laster, that he suspected Laster was involved in a drug transaction with the individuals in the Camry. [Id. at 14]. Agent Howard obtained Laster's driver's license and an identification card from a passenger seated in the Sentra, handed them to Woodstock Police Department Officer Barron Dixon ("Officer Dixon"), who was on the scene, and asked him to run them for warrants and any criminal history for drugs. [Doc. 95-1 at 00:30-00:37].[5] Agent Howard then returned to the Sentra, accompanied by Officer Javardia Wynn of
the Woodstock Police Department, who also had a body-worn video camera that recorded the encounter, see [Doc. 95-2], and he asked Laster to exit the vehicle and step to the rear to speak with him. See [id. at 01:12-01:17]. Laster complied with the request and walked to the rear of the Sentra where he stood and spoke with Agent Howard for a few minutes. See [id. at 01:20-04:30]. Agent Howard frisked Laster for weapons, [id at 01:40-01:47], and asked him to remove his hands from his pockets as they were talking, [id at 01:55-02:02], but Laster was not handcuffed or otherwise physically restrained in any manner during this conversation with Agent Howard at the rear of his vehicle, [id at 01:20-04:30].
Agent Howard explained to Laster why he suspected that he was involved in a drug deal with the two Hispanic males in the Camry based on the investigation, [ id at 01:48-02:50], but Laster denied that he was there to acquire drugs, [id at 02:42-02:45, 03:10-03:16]. Instead, Laster said that he was traveling from Tennessee to Atlanta when he stopped to ask for directions from the individual who was seated as a passenger in his vehicle, [id. at 02:50-02:55], and he denied knowing that individual or the two males in the Camry, [ id at 03:45-03:50]. Agent Howard asked Laster if he had any drugs, weapons, or large sums of money in the Sentra, which Laster denied. [Id. at 04:02-04:06]. Agent Howard then requested consent to search his vehicle, but Laster declined. [Id. at 04:07-04:15]. Agent Howard asked if the Woodstock Police Department had a K-9 unit
on duty, [ id. at 04:17-04:27], and Officer Dixon requested the K-9 officer on call to come to the scene, but he was not available, [Doc. 95-1 at 05:35-07:40], so he contacted other nearby jurisdictions requesting a K-9 unit, [ id. at 07:44-07:55, 13:44-14:00].
While waiting on a K-9 officer to arrive, Agent Howard stepped away from Laster to speak with the individual who had been seated in the Sentra with Laster, [Doc. 95-2 at 04:35], and other officers and agents remained near Laster, who stood unrestrained at the rear of his vehicle for another approximately 20 minutes as agents continued their investigation at the scene.[6] [Doc. 95-1 at 05:30-23:10; Doc. 95-2 at 04:35-25:20]. The individual who had been seated in the passenger seat of Laster's vehicle when Agent Howard approached the Sentra told agents that he did not know Laster and had just met him and was asking him for a job, [Doc. 88-1 at 14], but he subsequently told agents that Laster was in the parking lot to buy $21, 000 of drugs from the occupants of the Camry, [ id. at 6, 14-15].
After speaking with the passenger in the Sentra, Agent Howard returned to Laster and told him that he had requested a K-9 unit and that he was applying for a search warrant for the Sentra so Laster had to remain out of the vehicle. [Doc. 95-1 at 16:00-17:07].
Agent Howard asked the Woodstock police officers to wait with Laster who remained unrestrained, standing at the rear of the vehicle, [id, at 17:08-17:16]. Either Officer Dixon or two to three other officers stood in the vicinity of Laster for the remainder of the encounter in the parking lot, but Laster was not handcuffed or otherwise restrained during this time. [Id. at 17:16-44:15]. A Cherokee County Sheriffs Office K-9 officer arrived on the scene approximately 25 minutes after Agent Howard had first approached Laster. [Doc. 88-1 at 14; Doc. 95-1 at 23:30]. Laster was asked to step away from the Sentra so the K-9 could be deployed around the vehicle, and he stood next to an unmarked law enforcement vehicle nearby. [Doc. 95-1 at 25:15-25:30]. The K-9 circled the Sentra and alerted to the presence of narcotics odor from within the vehicle. [Doc. 88-1 at 14; Doc. 95-1 at 26:15-27:05].
Agent Howard returned to where Laster was waiting and told him that the K-9 gave a positive alert for the Sentra, and he informed Laster that he was waiting for a search warrant for the vehicle. [Doc. 95-1 at 30:18-30:50]. Approximately 17 minutes after the K-9 alert, Officer Dixon placed Laster in handcuffs and told him that he was not under arrest but was being detained, [ id. at 44:15-44:40], and he put Laster in a marked patrol vehicle, [ id. at 45:35-47:14]. Approximately five minutes later, Officer Dixon informed Laster that he was under arrest for methamphetamine trafficking, [ id. at 52:35-52:55], moved him to his patrol vehicle,
[id. at 52:35-55:12], and transported him to the Cherokee County Sheriffs Office, at 1:01:25-1:22:50]. Agents subsequently obtained a state search warrant for the Sentra, [Doc. 88-1 at 8], and seized $23, 100 in United States currency and multiple cell phones from the vehicle, [id. at 6]. A second state search warrant for the Sentra was obtained and executed on October 19, 2020, [Doc. 88-2 at 34], but it did not result in the seizure of any evidence, [id. at 7-8].
On February 23, 2021, a federal grand jury returned a two-count indictment against Laster. [Doc. 70]. Laster was arraigned on March 9, 2021, [Doc. 77], and the Court issued a pretrial scheduling order, requiring pretrial motions to be filed...
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