United States v. Stancle, Case No. 13-CR-28-JED

• Decision Date: 21 April 2016
• Docket Number: Case No. 13-CR-28-JED
• Citation: 184 F.Supp.3d 1249
• Parties: United States of America, Plaintiff, v. Donyale Stancle, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Northern District of Oklahoma

184 F.Supp.3d 1249

United States of America, Plaintiff,

v.Donyale Stancle, Defendant.

Case No. 13-CR-28-JED

United States District Court, N.D. Oklahoma.

Signed April 21, 2016

Allen Johnston Litchfield, Andrew J. Hofland, Catherine J. Depew, Eric O. Johnston, Robert Thames Raley, United States Attorney's Office, Tulsa, OK, for Plaintiff.

Kurt Kerns, Ariagno Kerns Mank & White LLC, Wichita, KS, for Defendant.

OPINION AND ORDER

JOHN E. DOWDELL, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

The Court has for its consideration defendant's First Motion to Suppress evidence from October 21, 2013 (Doc. 1796) and defendant's Second Motion to Suppress evidence from February 5, 2013 (Doc. 1797). The government has opposed both motions. (Docs. 1813, 1814). On April 15, 2016, the Court held an evidentiary hearing on the motions. The following Tulsa Police Department officers testified on behalf of the government: Corporal Adam Dawson, Corporal William Howard Jenkins, Corporal Ian Adair, Detective James Bohanon, and Officer Tyler Turnbough. At the time of the events underlying both of defendant's motions, all the officers were assigned to the Organized Gang Unit in the Special Investigations Division. Defendant called no witnesses to testify at the hearing.

I. Background

This is a complex case involving, at its peak, 53 defendants. A severance plan was implemented and Mr. Stancle was one of six defendants placed in Severance Group F. (Doc. 868). Now, Mr. Stancle is the only defendant remaining in this group.

Defendant is charged in Count One of the Sixth Superseding Indictment with Conspiracy to Possess with Intent to Distribute, Distribution and to Manufacture 280 grams or more of a detectable amount of cocaine base "crack" in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(A)(iii), and 846. Count one alleges as an object of the conspiracy, Possession with Intent to Distribute and Distribution of 100 kilograms or more of marijuana in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B)(vii). Count one also alleges as an object of the conspiracy, Possession with Intent to Distribute and Distribution of 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A)(ii).

II. Facts

A. First Motion to Suppress

The government presented the uncontroverted testimony of Officers Turnbough and Bohanon to relay the events from October 21, 2013. The Court finds no reason to question the officers' credibility, as both appeared truthful and their sworn testimony was consistent and detailed regarding the initiation of a traffic stop, the subsequent search of defendant and another individual, as well as the search of the vehicle. Their testimony was as follows:

On October 21, 2013 at around 2:30 p.m., Officers Turnbough and Bohanon were on patrol in the area of 500 E. Tecumseh Street in Tulsa. Both officers testified that while on patrol, they received a call from a surveillance unit with a request to stop a particular vehicle.¹ The officers located the vehicle in question, which they began to follow. The officers initiated a traffic stop after they both observed the driver fail to signal a right hand turn.

Officer Bohanon approached the vehicle from the passenger's side and Officer Turnbough approached from the driver's side. Both officers testified that they smelled burnt marijuana coming from the open windows as they approached the vehicle. The officers removed the defendant, who was the driver of the vehicle, and the passenger, Demarcus Johnson, from the vehicle and handcuffed them. Officer Bohanon testified that the occupants were detained to preserve evidence. Officer Bohanon remained with defendant and Mr. Johnson while Officer Turnbough conducted a records check and ultimately found an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for Mr. Johnson.

Officer Turnbough testified that he searched the vehicle and found no marijuana. He later searched defendant and did not find any marijuana on defendant's person. There was also no marijuana found on Mr. Johnson. Officer Bohanon explained that the odor of burnt marijuana "lingers," by attaching itself to a vehicle and an individual's clothing, and thus it was not surprising that the officers were unable to find any burnt marijuana.

However, Officer Turnbough found $940 in cash in defendant's back left pocket, which consisted of four $100 bills and the rest in $20 bills. Defendant was released after the officers terminated the traffic stop, and the cash was returned to his possession. Mr. Johnson was taken into custody and arrested for his warrant. The officers testified that they exercised their discretion in deciding not to issue defendant a citation for the traffic violation.

Officer Turnbough reported and testified that the purpose of the stop and resulting Field Interview Report was to document the association between Mr. Johnson and defendant, and their presence in the area where surveillance was being conducted by law enforcement.

B. Second Motion to Suppress

At the hearing, the government offered the testimony of Officers Dawson, Jenkins, Adair, and Bohanon. The Court also finds that these witnesses were credible, and their testimony was consistent with one another regarding the initiation of a traffic stop around 10:13 p.m. on February 5, 2013, the subsequent search of defendant and the other individual in the vehicle, and the search of the vehicle.

Officers Dawson, Jenkins, and Adair all testified that on the night of February 5, 2013, they were patrolling the area of 2400 North Boston Place in Tulsa in an unmarked patrol car. Dawson was driving the vehicle, Jenkins sat in the passenger seat, and Adair sat in the rear right seat.

The three officers testified that they had been frequently patrolling that particular area because it was the location of a high profile gang murder in December 2012 that had resulted in a series of retaliatory gang-related shootings. While the patrol car was facing north on North Boston Place while stopped at a stop sign at the intersection of North Boston Place and Apache Street, Officer Dawson observed a Dodge Charger driving toward him. The Charger was stopped at the intersection after traveling westbound on Apache Street and then made a left, turning south onto Boston Place toward the patrol car. Officer Dawson flashed the patrol car's spotlight to illuminate the inside of the vehicle.² The spotlight revealed that the driver, Jamar Stewart, and the passenger, defendant Stancle, were not wearing seatbelts. Officer Dawson immediately made a U-turn, turned his lights on, and initiated a traffic stop. The other two officers in the car testified that they did not personally observe the fact that defendant and Mr. Stewart were not wearing seatbelts.³ The vehicle stopped in the driveway of Mr. Stewart's aunt's house, approximately half a block south of the intersection. Officer Dawson made contact with Mr. Stewart on the driver's side of the vehicle, and Officers Jenkins and Adair made contact with defendant on the passenger side.

Both Officers Dawson and Jenkins testified that as they approached the car, they detected the odor of raw marijuana emanating from the vehicle. Officer Dawson made a hand gesture to the officers—tapping his nose—indicating to them that he smelled marijuana. Jenkins also testified that he believed he saw a marijuana smoking device in the center console of the vehicle.⁴ Based on these observations, the officers removed both Mr. Stewart and defendant from the vehicle to perform a records check.

As defendant was exiting the vehicle, both Jenkins and Adair observed a large bulge in defendant's front right pocket. They both testified that they believed the bulge to be a large wad of cash. Officer Adair then informed defendant that he was being detained, and he was placed in handcuffs for officer safety. Jenkins also noticed a partially filled bottle of Crown Royal in the car as defendant left the vehicle. While Officers Adair and Dawson remained with the two individuals, Jenkins began to search the vehicle.

Officer Dawson testified that, at some point while Jenkins was searching the vehicle, he observed defendant chewing on something. Based on Dawson's experience and his observation that defendant was not speaking, Dawson believed that defendant may have been chewing on contraband. Defendant refused to open his mouth even after repeated requests from the officers. The officers attempted to open defendant's mouth, to no avail. The officers eventually gave up and instead informed defendant that he was under arrest for destroying evidence and obstructing justice.

Officer Adair began searching defendant incident to arrest and retrieved a large wad of cash from defendant's front right pocket. The officers testified that at some point shortly thereafter, defendant began running from the vehicle. Adair and Jenkins pursued defendant while Dawson remained with Mr. Stewart. Defendant, who was handcuffed, was promptly captured. Jenkins and Adair testified that they observed defendant's mouth position was different from how it was during his initial detention in that it was no longer clenched.

Other officers were notified that defendant had run from the scene and arrived to assist. Jenkins testified that it is common practice to retrace a suspect's route after a pursuit, in order to retrieve any evidence that may have been discarded or dropped by accident. Officer Todd Henley was tasked with retracing defendant's route to search for evidence, and located a plastic baggie on the ground that was covered in saliva and appeared to have been chewed on. A field test conducted by Officer Bohanon on the scene revealed that the baggie contained "crack" cocaine or cocaine base. Officer Dawson testified that the baggie was of a size that would reasonably fit in a person's mouth.

The officers resumed searching both detainees and the vehicle. The search revealed the following: $1,317 in cash belonging to defendant,⁵ $471 in cash belonging to Mr. Stewart, "crack" cocaine particles in the...