United States v. Malone

• Decision Date: 08 May 2023
• Docket Number: Criminal 3:22CR182 (RCY)
• Parties: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. WILLIAM ANTHONY MALONE, JR., Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Virginia

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA v. WILLIAM ANTHONY MALONE, JR., Defendant.

Criminal No. 3:22CR182 (RCY)

United States District Court, E.D. Virginia, Richmond Division

May 8, 2023

MEMORANDUM OPINION

Roderick C. Young, United States District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on Defendant William Anthony Malone Jr.'s (hereinafter “Defendant Malone”) Motion to Suppress (ECF No. 16). On May 1, 2023, the Court held a hearing on Defendant Malone's Motion to Suppress and denied such motion from the bench at the conclusion of the hearing. This Memorandum Opinion sets forth the Court's reasons for its decision.

I. PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On December 6, 2022, Defendant Malone was charged in a one-count Indictment with Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition by a Convicted Felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). (ECF No. 1.) Specifically, the Indictment charged Defendant Malone with having possessed two firearms (a Rossi revolver and a Taurus revolver, both chambered in .357 caliber) along with various ammunition. (ECF No. 1.) On March 27, 2023 Defendant Malone filed a Motion to Suppress (ECF No. 16) that sought to suppress statements he made to officers and a magistrate before he was read his Miranda warnings and a Motion in Limine (ECF No. 17) that sought to exclude certain evidence of other alleged acts. On April 10, 2023, the Government filed its Responses, noting that it will only be disputing the Motion to Suppress and that it does not plan on introducing the statements that were the subject of the Motion in Limine. (ECF Nos. 18, 20.)

On April 17, 2023, Defendant Malone filed his Reply (ECF No. 23), and the Court set the matter for a hearing.

II. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

At approximately 2:00 A.M. on August 23, 2022, Officer Barnes-Christian and Officer Sledge of the Richmond City Police Department were sitting in their parked patrol vehicle in the Gilpin Court housing project. Defendant William Anthony Malone, Jr. approached Officer Barnes-Christian, who was seated in the passenger seat of the marked police vehicle, and informed the officers that he was helping a woman move her belongings. Officer Barnes-Christian observed a bulge in Defendant Malone's waistband and asked Defendant Malone if he had a permit for the firearm he was carrying. At that point, Defendant Malone started to back away from the officers, and a chase ensued. The officers chased Defendant Malone through the Gilpin Court area. Officer Barnes-Christian told Defendant Malone to drop the weapon at which point Defendant Malone tossed the firearms on the ground and continued running. While Officer Sledge stopped to recover the firearms, Officer Barnes-Christian caught up to and arrested Defendant Malone, placed him in handcuffs, and ran Defendant' Malone's personal identifiers. Thereafter, Officer Barnes-Christian discovered that Defendant Malone had multiple warrants pending for his arrest and a prior felony conviction. After Defendant Malone was detained, Officer Barnes-Christian activated his body-worn camera (“BWC”) that he wore on his chest. At no point did Officer Barnes-Christian or Officer Sledge read Defendant Malone his Miranda rights.

Officer Barnes-Christian transported Defendant Malone to the Richmond City Jail via the “sally port,” and started the booking process at the jail. During this time, Officer Barnes-Christian conversed with Defendant Malone, who was worried about his term of imprisonment with the charges he potentially faced. Officer Barnes-Christian informed Defendant Malone that he could “make a deal” with the Commonwealth Attorney for a lesser amount of time.^[1]

At approximately 4:30 A.M., Officer Barnes-Christian took Defendant Malone before a magistrate at the Richmond City Jail. Officer Barnes-Christian's body worn camera was turned on at this time and continued to record both audio and video during Defendant Malone's time in front of the magistrate. (See BWC Footage, ECF No. 28-3.) At the Richmond City Jail, the magistrate first held a hearing to determine if there was probable cause to sign an arrest warrant for Defendant Malone. The magistrate informed Defendant Malone that he would be asking the officer a “couple of questions to see if there's probable cause . . . for the arrest,” and told Defendant Malone to wait until he is done speaking with the officer to make any statements. (Transcript 1, ECF No. 28-2.) After the magistrate heard the officer's summary of what had occurred and asked some clarifying questions of the officer, the following exchange occurred:

MAGISTRATE: Alright, Mr. Malone, you've heard everything the officer has said. Before making a probable cause determination, this is your opportunity to make any statements that you'd like. But before you do so, you must bear in mind two things. The first is that you do not have to speak to me-if you'd like not to speak to me that is just fine, your silence doesn't hurt you, I won't hold it against you, and I'll draw no inferences from it. If on the other hand you do wish to make a statement, you are seated right next to a police officer, so whatever you say could be used against you if and when this matter goes to court. So bearing that in mind, if you'd like to make any statements, please let me know, I'll swear you in and I'll let you- listen to whatever you want to tell me. If, on the other hand, you wish to remain silent, like I said, this is fine, it doesn't hurt you, just let me know so I can move on to the next portion of our hearing.

MALONE: Yes, sir.

MAGISTRATE: I will assume, from that, that you wish to remain silent?

MALONE: Yes, sir.

MAGISTRATE: Alright.

MALONE: I just didn't mean no harm-I didn't mean no harm, I just wanted to protect myself [unintelligible].

(Id. 2-3.) About three minutes after that exchange, and after the magistrate clarified some of the charges with the arresting officer, the magistrate stated:

MAGISTRATE: Um, so I don't think I can write the, the stolen firearm. I can write the possession with a firearm, the firearm felon, two concealds? Which seems strange to me but I'll leave up to you, prosecution on that one. Um, I will get to work on that, and then I will ask some questions of you in a moment, Mr. Malone, uh, to see about setting you a bond. In the meantime, I will thank everybody in advance for their patience, while I get to the paperwork.

(Id. 4; BWC Footage.) Then, the magistrate and arresting officer filed out paperwork and the magistrate eventually signed an arrest warrant for Defendant Malone. (Transcript 4.) Ten minutes after the magistrate stated that he was planning on asking Defendant Malone some questions, the magistrate began asking Defendant Malone questions pertaining to his bond:

MAGISTRATE: Alright, sir, I am going to ask you some questions that will help me determine your bond, to do that, I need to swear you in - of course since you're in handcuffs you do not need to raise your right hand. Sir, do you swear to tell the truth?

MALONE: Yes, sir.

MAGISTRATE: How long have you lived in the greater Richmond area?

MALONE: All my life.

MAGISTRATE: How long, um, do you have any family hereabouts?

MALONE: Yes, sir.

MAGISTRATE: What family members specifically do you have?

MALONE: What you mean, like my mother, my dad, my cousins-

MAGISTRATE: Have you ever been married, do you have any children?

MALONE: No.

MAGISTRATE: I'm sorry?

MALONE: One.

MAGISTRATE: One spouse or one child?

MALONE: One child.

MAGISTRATE: What's the highest level of education that you've completed?

MALONE: Uh, [unintelligible] the tenth.

MAGISTRATE: I'm sorry?

MALONE: Probably the tenth.

MAGISTRATE: And are you employed?

MALONE: Um, only part time.

MAGISTRATE: Doing what?

MALONE: Construction.

MAGISTRATE: Do you own any real estate or any motor vehicles here in the Commonwealth of Virginia?

MALONE: No, sir.

MAGISTRATE: Is your probation supervised or unsupervised?

MALONE: Sup-wait, when they tell you to call, what's that? That's supervised?

MAGISTRATE: Correct.

MALONE: [Unintelligible]

MAGISTRATE: Um, have you ever been charged with the failure to appear in court whether you were convicted or not?

MALONE: Sorry?

MAGISTRATE: Have you ever been charged with the failure to appear in court whether you were convicted or not?

MALONE: Have I ever been [unintelligible] failure to appear in court whatever convicted or not?

MAGISTRATE: Have you ever been charged-

MALONE: Yeah, I think I've been charged, I think I've been charged [unintelligible] I think so.

MAGISTRATE: [Unintelligible]

MALONE: Sir?

MAGISTRATE: Do you have any pending court appearances?

MALONE: No.

MAGISTRATE: Do you have anything else you wanted to add before I made a bond determination?

MALONE: I just, I just, what happened tonight was just, me, by having like the firearms on me, and just, being in that area anybody's going to have that type of, like, have that on them to protect theyself and that's all it was, I was not out there trying to harm nobody by havin' that on me and I just was helping my friend moving, move, like she was she was moving her clothes to another apartment section in Jackson Ward and I just was helping her out and the officers seen me with my concealed weapons and that's all but it's like, I don't, I don't, I don't feel like I'm a threat because I wasn't out there tryin' to like, rob nobody or shoot nobody, I just was helpin' a young lady move her stuff, that's all, that's all, [unintelligible] and I just, I feel like I'm a predator, I wasn't a predator, man.

(Id. 4-6; BWC Footage.) After this exchange, the magistrate determined that Defendant Malone would be held without bond given his history of failure to appear in court and the serious nature of him being a violent felon in possession of a firearm. (Transcript 6.)

III. DISCUSSION

In the ...