United States v. Williams
| Decision Date | 02 October 2013 |
| Docket Number | No. 12–15313.,12–15313. |
| Citation | 731 F.3d 1222 |
| Parties | UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. Michael Talton WILLIAMS, Defendant–Appellant. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Anne Ruth Schultz, Eloisa Delgado Fernandez, Wifredo A. Ferrer, Gera R. Peoples, U.S. Attorney's Office, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff–Appellee.
Ivy R. Ginsberg, Ivy R. Ginsberg, PA, Aventura, FL, for Defendant–Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. D.C. Docket No. 1:11–cr–20813–WJZ–1.
Before HULL and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and HINKLE,* District Judge.
After a jury trial, defendant Michael Talton Williams appeals his convictions for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), possession with intent to distribute a detectable amount of crack cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). Defendant Williams attacks his convictions on two general grounds, arguing that: (1) a firearm introduced into evidence at trial was obtained during an unlawful search; and (2) the district court erred during jury selection by sustaining the government's objection under Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 106 S.Ct. 1712, 90 L.Ed.2d 69 (1986), and thus depriving him of one of his peremptory strikes. He also attacks his § 924(c)(1)(A) firearm conviction by contending that there was insufficient evidence that he possessed a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. After careful review, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm Williams's convictions.
We begin by setting forth the evidence of Williams's offenses that was introduced at trial. We then address Williams's Fourth Amendment and sufficiency of the evidence arguments, as those issues pertain to the trial evidence. Afterwards, we return to the peremptory strike issue, describing the jury selection in Williams's case and explaining why any error by the district court does not entitle Williams to relief.
We first describe Williams's March 24, 2011 arrest by Miami, Florida police officers. This arrest, and the evidence obtained from Williams during the arrest, eventually formed the basis of the federal prosecution in this case. We base our description on the evidence presented at trial, as well as testimony given during a pretrial suppression hearing. We highlight the conflicting accounts of certain events.
On March 24, 2011, at around 6:15 PM, Officers Raul Delgado and Ivan Moreno of the City of Miami Police Department went to a “rooming house” located at 3531 Grand Avenue in the Coconut Grove area of Miami, Florida. At trial, Officer Delgado described the rooming house as “a two floor building” which had individual apartments for tenants and communal hallways, bathrooms, and a kitchen.
Officers Delgado and Moreno went to the rooming house on that day to investigate “narcotics complaints.” The police department had received many reports that drugs were being sold from the rooming house. Prior to March 24, Officer Moreno had “made numerous arrests there” and had “done numerous surveillances” of the rooming house.
Officer Delgado had also been there many times. He testified at the suppression hearing that the owner of the rooming house had given him a key to the house. The owner had also authorized Officer Moreno to “check up on the propert[y].”
When the officers arrived, Officer Delgado exited the passenger side of their marked police car, walked to the front door of the rooming house, and knocked on the door. Officer Moreno, meanwhile, remained in the police car. Both officers were dressed in full uniform. Defendant Williams answered the door. According to Officer Moreno, Williams appeared nervous upon opening the door, and he kept “looking around.” A conversation followed, during which Officer Delgado stood just outside the door frame, while Williams stood in the threshold of the door.
Officer Delgado testified at trial about the conversation that followed. According to Officer Delgado, he asked Williams if he (Williams) lived at the rooming house, to which Williams said, “Yes.” Officer Delgado then asked Williams whether he (Williams) “had anything illegal on him.” Williams said, “No.” Officer Delgado next asked Williams whether he could search him (Williams). Williams said,
While Officer Delgado was talking to Williams, Officer Moreno exited the vehicle and approached the rooming house. He got to within ten feet of where Officer Delgado and Williams were standing, but he could not hear what the two men were saying. As he got close to Williams, Officer Moreno noticed “a bulge” in Williams's waistband.
During the pretrial suppression hearing, Williams described the conversation differently. According to Williams, Officer Delgado asked him (Williams) if he had any drugs; Williams replied “I don't have no drugs on me.” Officer Delgado then asked Williams, “You mind if I search you?” Williams answered, “If you search me for what?” To which Officer Delgado asked, “What are you hiding?” According to Williams, Williams stated that he was not “hiding nothing,” and Officer Delgado said, “Well, let's take a look.”
Next, Officer Delgado reached for Williams's pockets to search him. As Officer Delgado leaned forward, Williams pushed him in the upper chest area causing the officer to stumble backwards (although he did not fall to the ground).
At trial, Officer Moreno, who observed the altercation from outside the police vehicle, testified that Williams shoved Officer Delgado with both hands at “full force.” During the suppression hearing, Williams stated that he only “push[ed] [Officer Moreno's] hands away.” Williams testified that he did so “because [he] already refused [Officer Delgado] consent to search ... and [Officer Delgado] tried to search ... by using force.”
In any event, it was undisputed that Williams next ran back inside the rooming house. After regaining his footing, Officer Delgado called out for Williams to stop, but Williams “kept on running.” Officer Delgado, joined by Officer Moreno, chased Williams into the rooming house. Williams attempted to enter an apartment, but the door was locked and would not open when Williams pushed it with his shoulder. Next, Williams attempted to exit the building through a rear door, but that door was also locked.
Again, there was conflicting testimony about what happened next. Officer Delgado testified at trial that, after Williams was unable to exit the building, he turned around and “took a fighting stance.” Likewise, Officer Moreno stated that Williams “basically just took a fighting stance with his clinched fist as he was ready to fight with us.” Officer Delgado testified that he tried to take Williams into custody, but Williams resisted and both Officer Delgado and Williams “ended on the ground.” Officer Moreno described the events similarly. Officer Moreno addedthat, although the officers ordered Williams to put his hands behind his back “numerous times,” Williams refused to do so. Instead, Williams “was pushing and pulling” and “would reach down to his waistband as they were fighting.”
As the officers wrestled with Williams on the ground, Williams continued to reach for his waistband. The officers attempted to put handcuffs on Williams, but were unable to do so. They also tried to subdue Williams by using their taser weapons to “dry stun” him, but the tasers had little effect. In fact, Williams attempted to take the taser from Officer Moreno, and the taser wound up on the ground. Officer Delgado picked up the taser and tried to use it on Williams, but the taser still did not subdue Williams.
Williams tried to get away from the officers by crawling into a communal bathroom. Before Williams fully entered the bathroom, Officer Moreno grabbed Williams by his feet and pulled him backwards. When Officer Moreno lost his grip on Williams's legs and stumbled backwards, Williams “started doing ... flutter kicks, kicking his feet in the air.”
At that time, Officer Moreno saw a black semiautomatic handgun fall out of Williams's waistband and land “directly next to [Williams] on the right-hand side.” Standing just two feet away, the gun caused Officer Moreno to fear for his and Officer Delgado's lives. Officer Moreno “immediately got on top of ... Williams and began striking him, giving him loud verbal commands to put his hands behind his back.” Williams continued resisting. With Officer Delgado's help, Officer Moreno was able to handcuff Williams and finally subdue him. Officer Delgado “grabbed” Williams, while Officer Moreno recovered the handgun from the ground.
Williams described the altercation in the hallway differently. He testified that, as he was trying to open the locked back door, the officers “snatch[ed] [him] down from behind.” According to Williams, when the officers “snatch[ed] [him],” he did not have a firearm on his person. Williams stated that the officers “beat [him]” and were “tasing [him].” He testified, Williams specifically denied resisting the officers' attempts to arrest him. He stated that he was “trying to ball up” while the officers were “tasing [him] and pounding [him].”
Regardless, it is undisputed that after the arrest but before the officers and Williams exited the rooming house, Officer Delgado searched Williams. In Williams's left front pocket, Officer Delgado found a cigarette box containing: (1) 21 orange-tinted bags containing crack cocaine; and (2) 4...
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