United States v. Medley

• Decision Date: 11 May 2022
• Docket Number: 18-4789
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Jovon Lovelle MEDLEY, Defendant - Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

34 F.4th 326

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.Jovon Lovelle MEDLEY, Defendant - Appellant.

No.18-4789

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: January 29, 2020

Decided: May 11, 2022

ARGUED: Cullen Oakes Macbeth, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant. Burden Hastings Walker, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: James Wyda, Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant. Robert K. Hur, United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, Christian J. Nauvel, Special Assistant United States Attorney, Thomas M. Sullivan, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellee.

Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, KING, and QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Quattlebaum wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Gregory and Judge King joined.

QUATTLEBAUM, Circuit Judge:

This matter returns to us after being held in abeyance pending the Supreme Court's decision in Greer v. United States, ––– U.S. ––––, 141 S.Ct. 2090, 210 L.Ed.2d 121 (2021) and the October 6, 2021 order of this Court, sitting en banc, following that decision. Based on Greer , we held that appellant Jovon Medley "is not entitled to plain-error relief for his unpreserved Rehaif claim, and we affirm the judgment of the district court with respect to this issue." The en banc court then remanded the case to the originally assigned panel for consideration of the remaining issues presented. In response to that order, we address the remaining issues Medley raises on appeal.

I.

Jovon Medley appeals his felon in possession of a firearm conviction and sentence. Regarding his conviction, Medley challenges the district court's denial of his motion to suppress statements he made to the police, without the benefit of counsel, about the gun involved in the felon-in-possession charge. Regarding his sentence, he argues that the district court's application of a Sentencing Guidelines enhancement, based on its finding that Medley used the firearm to commit a carjacking, violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial because it was based on acquitted conduct. For the reasons set forth below, we reject these arguments and affirm the judgment of the district court.

II.

The remaining issues raised by Medley on appeal arise from his separate prosecutions by the District of Columbia and the federal government. Because of their importance to the analysis of the issues on appeal, we describe these prosecutions in detail. On December 30, 2016, Prince George's County, Maryland police officials responded to a report of a carjacking and shooting at an apartment complex. At the scene, they discovered Elton Wright, who had multiple gunshot wounds to his leg and hip. Wright had been walking to his car when a masked man with a gun confronted him and demanded his keys. When Wright tried to flee, the man shot him, took the keys and fled in Wright's car. Wright did not recognize the man, but noted that the gun appeared to be "a .45 ... or some type of Glock." J.A. 1815.

The next day, Washington, D.C police on a routine patrol saw Medley nervously move away from a group of friends as they approached. Medley was not at that time a person of interest related to the carjacking. But when the officers identified themselves as police and began to follow Medley, he ran into a nearby house. Medley eventually responded to the officers’ calls to exit the house and was detained.

The resident of the house told the officers that he did not know Medley, and that Medley entered his home without permission. The resident allowed the officers to search the part of the home where Medley had hidden. There, the officers recovered a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun made by the Rock Island Armory ("Rock Island Firearm") and a Glock, model 17, 9mm. They arrested Medley for carrying a firearm without a license, in violation of District of Columbia law.

On January 2, 2017, Medley was charged in D.C. Superior Court with Unlawful Possession of a Firearm by a convicted felon, in violation of 22 D.C. Code § 4503(a)(1), (b)(1). That same day, the court appointed Medley a lawyer. Three days later, at his preliminary hearing, the court appointed a new lawyer at Medley's request.

Several weeks later, Darren Dalton, a detective involved with the Prince George's Country Police Department's investigation of the Maryland carjacking, received a notification from the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network database that shell casings recovered from the scene of the carjacking were possibly linked to the Rock Island Firearm recovered during Medley's arrest. Dalton asked the county's Firearms Examination Unit for an official comparison and, a few days later, they reported that the shell casings "were identified as having been fired" from the Rock Island Firearm. J.A. 1297. Looking further into Medley's D.C. case, Detective Dalton discovered that Medley was being held in a D.C. jail.

Within days, Detective Dalton and two other officers from Prince George's County traveled to D.C. to interview Medley. Dalton introduced himself to Medley as a Prince George's County detective and explained that he wished to speak about the guns recovered during his D.C. arrest. He said he was not from the D.C. police department and that he was there to discuss a Maryland carjacking investigation, not the details of Medley's D.C. case.

Detective Dalton advised Medley of his Miranda rights, and Medley indicated he understood them. During the interview Medley did not mention his appointed counsel in the D.C. case, ask for the conversation to stop or request a lawyer. Dalton testified that at the time of the interview, he did not know that Medley was represented by an attorney in his D.C. case.

Medley told Detective Dalton that he purchased the Rock Island Firearm four days before his arrest in D.C. He stated that he was the only person to possess the gun during that four-day period. When Medley became hesitant about answering more of Dalton's questions, Dalton stopped the interview.

Based in part on Medley's statements, a federal grand jury in the District of Maryland indicted Medley for carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2119(2) ; using, brandishing, carrying and discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(iii) ; and possessing a firearm and ammunition as a felon, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). The felon-in-possession count listed the Rock Island Firearm recovered during Medley's D.C. arrest as the relevant firearm.

Medley moved to suppress the statements he made to Detective Dalton. He argued that Dalton obtained those statements "in violation of ... his right to counsel as guaranteed by the Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution." J.A. 8. The district court denied Medley's motion, holding that the officers did not violate Medley's Fifth Amendment rights or Sixth Amendment right to counsel because Medley voluntarily waived those rights by answering Dalton's questions without an attorney present after receiving Miranda warnings. The district court explained that because Medley "didn't ask for counsel" and "didn't invoke counsel" after receiving his Miranda warnings, the police were free to question him. J.A. 599. Relying on Montejo v. Louisiana , 556 U.S. 778, 129 S.Ct. 2079, 173 L.Ed.2d 955 (2009), the court held Medley's waiver of his Miranda rights also waived his Sixth Amendment right to counsel.

After a five-day trial,¹ the jury convicted Medley of the felon-in-possession charge, but acquitted him of the two charges related to the carjacking. At sentencing, the presentence investigation report ("PSR") assigned Medley a base offense level of 20 under U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A), based on a 1997 conviction for second degree murder. Medley did not object to this base offense level. But he did object to Probation adding a four-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) because Medley used the Rock Island Firearm in connection with another felony—the carjacking of Elton Wright. This produced a total offense level of 24 and a criminal history category of IV, yielding an advisory Guidelines range of 77–96 months in prison. Medley argued that the § 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) enhancement should not apply because he had been acquitted of the carjacking charges and, therefore, the evidence did not establish that he committed the carjacking. Probation disagreed and declined to amend the PSR.

The district court agreed with Probation finding, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Medley used the Rock Island Firearm in connection with the carjacking of Wright. It then adopted the PSR's enhanced Guidelines calculations and sentenced Medley to 78 months imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release.

Medley filed a timely notice of appeal, challenging both his conviction and his sentence. As to the conviction, Medley contends the district court violated his Sixth Amendment right to counsel by admitting the statements he made to Maryland police after he was appointed counsel in his D.C. case. Regarding his sentence, Medley first argues that the enhancement violated his Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial because it was based on acquitted conduct. He also contends that the district court clearly erred by enhancing his sentence after finding—based on a preponderance of the evidence—that he used the Rock Island Firearm in connection with the Maryland carjacking. This Court has jurisdiction under 18 U.S.C. § 3742 and 28 U.S.C. § 1291.

III.

We first address Medley's argument that the district court violated Medley's Sixth Amendment right to counsel by admitting the uncounseled statements made to Maryland police after he was appointed counsel in his D.C. case. In doing so, we review the factual findings...