United States v. Williams, 14970.

• Decision Date: 18 March 1963
• Docket Number: No. 14970.,14970.
• Citation: 314 F.2d 795
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gray WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

314 F.2d 795 (1963)

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Gray WILLIAMS, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 14970.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

March 18, 1963.

Dale Quillen, Nashville, Tenn., for appellant.

Cecil D. Meek, Jr., Knoxville, Tenn. (J. H. Reddy, U. S. Atty., Knoxville, Tenn., on the brief), for appellee.

Before CECIL, Chief Judge, MILLER, Circuit Judge, and THORNTON, District Judge.

SHACKELFORD MILLER, Jr., Circuit Judge.

Appellant was indicted for possessing and concealing nontaxpaid whiskey in violations of Sections 5008(b) and 5632, Title 26 United States Code. Prior to arraignment he filed a motion to suppress the evidence pertaining to the nontaxpaid whiskey on the ground that it was obtained by illegal search and seizure of his automobile in which it was being transported.

The whiskey was found by police officers of the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the trunk of appellant's car, after his car was wrecked following a chase of appellant by the officers at about 5:00 a. m., in which appellant drove at times at a speed in excess of seventy-five miles per hour.

In the hearing on the motion, the District Judge was of the opinion that even though the search, which was made by state officers rather than by federal agents, may have been illegal, the use of the evidence in the trial in the United States District Court was not barred under the ruling in Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 398, 34 S.Ct. 341, 58 L.Ed. 652 and Burdeau v. McDowell, 256 U.S. 465, 41 S.Ct. 574, 65 L.Ed. 1048, and several rulings of the Court of Appeals of this Circuit, commonly referred to as the "silver platter doctrine." He overruled the motion to suppress on the authority of those cases.

Appellant entered a plea of not guilty and following a trial was found guilty by a jury. Pending appeal, the Supreme Court on June 27, 1960 held in Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669, that evidence obtained by state officers during a search which, if conducted by federal officers would have violated the defendant's immunity from unreasonable searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment, was inadmissible in a federal criminal trial even when there was no participation by federal officers in the search and seizure. Accordingly, the action of the District Judge in overruling the motion to suppress could not be sustained on the authority of the earlier cases upon which he relied. The Government recognized this result but contended on the appeal that the evidence was nevertheless admissible because it was not obtained through an unlawful search and seizure, but was obtained through a lawful search of appellant's automobile after a lawful arrest. Harris v. United States, 331 U.S. 145, 67 S.Ct. 1098, 91 L.Ed. 1399; United States v. Rabinowitz, 339 U.S. 56, 70 S.Ct. 430, 94 L.Ed. 653. The factual situation relating to that contention had not been fully developed at the hearing on the motion to suppress due to the reliance of the District Judge upon the so-called "silver platter doctrine" embodied in the Weeks and Burdeau cases from the Supreme Court. Accordingly, the case was remanded by this Court to the District Court for reconsideration by the District Judge with permission to both parties to introduce additional evidence pertaining to the arrest and search, followed by findings of fact and conclusions of law by the District Judge with respect thereto. Williams v. United States, 282 F.2d 940, C.A.6th.

Following the remand, the District Judge heard additional evidence and made the following findings of fact which in our opinion are fully supported by the evidence and are accepted on this appeal.

Robert Poynter, a Knoxville policeman, was assigned to a certain area in Knoxville, Tennessee, in which area many break-ins had occurred, and he, with policeman Brooks, was at the time referred to herein investigating all strange cars in that area. Between 4:30 and 5:00 a. m. on June 30, 1959 a strange car, which as later developed was driven by the appellant and occupied by a boy by the name of Evans, was moving west on Willow Street. This car turned south on Patton Street. The officers pulled up behind the car and turned their spotlight on it but the car began to move whereupon the officers turned the siren on. Appellant's car continued to travel at a fast rate on various streets and turns in Knoxville, on to the Asheville highway, and finally after turning off the highway, in attempting to make a sharp turn at a bridge over a small stream, it overturned. After the car overturned the appellant and Evans came out of it and they were placed under arrest by the officers.

When the spotlight was first turned on to appellant's car and the appellant drove away rapidly, he increased his speed to as high as ninety miles an hour; traveled as high as sixty to sixty-five miles an hour at places where the speed limit was thirty miles an hour; ran the stop sign at at least two street intersections and possibly a third one; drove some ten to twelve miles from the place where he was observed by the officers to the place of the accident, and drove about one-half mile off of the Asheville highway before his car turned over. He was charged by the City officers with speeding and failing to stop at stop signs and reckless driving. He was fined $150 by the City Court.

The wreck caused the trunk of appellant's car to come open and the officers observed the cartons of whiskey in the trunk, which they seized and which is the evidence the appellant seeks to suppress. The whiskey itself was contained in half-gallon jars which were in the cartons which the officers observed in the trunk of the car. The officers were experienced men in investigating and arresting people who dealt in moonshine whiskey and they believed that the cartons contained half-gallon jars of moonshine whiskey because...