United States v. Wilson

• Decision Date: 18 December 2012
• Docket Number: No. 12 CR 610(RPP).,12 CR 610(RPP).
• Citation: 914 F.Supp.2d 550
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America v. Walter WILSON, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of New York

914 F.Supp.2d 550

UNITED STATES of America

v.Walter WILSON, Defendant.

No. 12 CR 610(RPP).

United States District Court,

S.D. New York.

Dec. 18, 2012.

Amy Garzon, United States Attorney's Office, SDNY, New York, NY, for Government's.

Jerrod Thompson, Federal Defenders of New York, New York, NY, for Defendant's.

OPINION & ORDER

ROBERT P. PATTERSON, JR., District Judge.

On September 14, 2012, Defendant Walter Wilson (“the Defendant”), charged with (1) possessing, with the intent to distribute, a controlled substance, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 812, 841(a)(1); (2) possession or use of a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(i); and (3) possession of a firearm after having been convicted of a felony, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), moved to suppress both his post-arrest statements to the officers and physical evidence seized from his bedroom. In support of his motion, the Defendant filed a declaration (“Wilson Decl.”) on that same date.

On October 5, 2012, the Court held a suppression hearing. The Government called one witness, New York City Police Department (“NYPD”) Officer Jhonatan Hernandez (“Officer Hernandez”), and introduced five exhibits: (1) the Defendant's videotaped statement to the Bronx District Attorney's Office (“Gov't Ex. 13”); (2) the consent to search form signed by the Defendant (“Gov't Ex. 6”); (3) the Miranda waiver form signed by the Defendant; (4) three guns found in the Defendant's bedroom (“Gov't Ex. 20”); and (5) thirty individually wrapped zip-lock bags of marijuana found in the Defendant's bedroom (“Gov't Ex. 21”). The Defense called two witnesses, NYPD Officer Roberto Suarez (“Officer Suarez”) and Sharmaine Leslie (“Ms. Leslie”), the Defendant's girlfriend. The Defense also introduced two exhibits: 1) Officer Hernandez's memo book (Def. Ex. A) and 2) the complaint filed in Bronx Supreme Court, Criminal Division (Def. Ex. B, hereinafter “Bronx Compl.”). The Defendant did not testify.

For the reasons detailed below, the Defendant's motion is granted in part and denied in part.

I. Facts

On May 9, 2012, NYPD Officers Hernandez and Suarez responded to a domestic disturbance complaint at an apartment located at 1392 Franklin Avenue, Bronx, New York (the “1392 Apartment”). (Tr. of Oct. 5, 2012 Hr'g, Test. of Officer Hernandez (“Hernandez Tr.”) at 17; Tr. of Oct. 5, 2012 Hr'g, Test. of Officer Suarez (“Suarez Tr.”) at 69.) Officer Hernandez testified that when he and Officer Suarez arrived on the scene at 6:10 p.m., the Defendant and his girlfriend, Ms. Leslie, were standing outside of the building, though the officers did not know their identities at that time. (Hernandez Tr. at 17.) Officer Hernandez asked the Defendant whether he had a key for the building. ( Id.) The Defendant answered “yes” and opened the building's door. ( Id. at 18.)

When the officers arrived at the 1392 Apartment, which is located on the fourth floor of the building, the complainant, Latoya Slaughter (“Ms. Slaughter”), alleged that the Defendant—her brother—had “pulled a gun on her” during a dispute and had just left the location.¹ ( Id. at 18; Suarez Tr. at 69, 75; Bronx Compl.; Gov't Ex. 13 at 20:11:16–20:13, 20:13:45–20:14:59.) Based on a description of the Defendant provided by Ms. Slaughter, the officers then stopped the Defendant and Ms. Leslie approximately three blocks from the 1392 Apartment. (Hernandez Tr. at 19; Suarez Tr. at 69.) Officer Suarez frisked the Defendant but did not find a weapon. (Hernandez Tr. at 19; Suarez Tr. at 76.) Officer Hernandez frisked Ms. Leslie. (Hernandez Tr. at 19–20; Tr. of Oct. 5, 2012 Hr'g, Test. of Sharmaine Leslie (“Leslie Tr.”) at 59.) Although he did not find a weapon, his search of Ms. Leslie's purse revealed more than thirty zip-lock bags of marijuana. ( Id.) The officers then arrested the Defendant and Ms. Leslie, handcuffed them, placed them in the rear of the police car, and drove them back to 1392 Franklin Avenue.² (Hernandez Tr. at 20; Suarez Tr. at 69, 75; Gov't Ex. 13 at 20:18:45.) The officers did not issue Miranda warnings at this time. (Wilson Decl. ¶ 5; Hernandez Tr. at 20; Suarez Tr. at 77.)

The officers then left the car and went upstairs to the fourth floor apartment, where Officer Hernandez informed Ms. Slaughter that the officers had located the Defendant but that he did not have a gun. (Hernandez Tr. at 20–21; Suarez Tr. at 77.) According to Officer Hernandez, she responded “if he doesn't have the gun with him, he probably left it in his room.” (Hernandez Tr. at 20–21.) Officer Hernandez testified that he was not able to go into the room at that time because “the bedroom was locked,” and Ms. Slaughter told the officers that only the Defendant had access to the room. (Hernandez Tr. at 21.) Ms. Slaughter then called the owner of the apartment, Latonica Wilson (“Ms. Wilson”), at work, and Officer Suarez asked the woman on the phone for her consent to enter the locked bedroom, which she gave.³ (Suarez Tr. at 71–72, 78.) Nevertheless, because the officers were not sure if the Defendant was paying rent for the room or just staying there, they then returned downstairs to ask the Defendant for his consent to enter his bedroom. (Hernandez Tr. at 21; Suarez Tr. at 78.)

The officers and the Defendant provided contradictory accounts of the conversation that followed, though they agree that the Defendant was questioned while still handcuffed in the back of the police cruiser and without having been informed of his Miranda rights.⁴ (Wilson Decl. ¶ 7; Hernandez Tr. at 23–24; Suarez Tr. at 70.) According to Officer Hernandez, the Defendant admitted having a gun in his locked bedroom and provided the officers with a key to open it:

Q: What specifically did you say to the defendant?

A: I asked the defendant, your sister told me that you pulled a gun on her, and we need to know where is the gun.

Q: What did he respond?

A: It's a fake gun that I have in my room. Then I asked the defendant, the room is locked, do you have a key for the bedroom? Yes. And where is the key? It's in my back pocket. Can I take the key? He said yes.

Q: Did you say anything else of [sic] the defendant?

A: I asked the defendant if it's ok for us to go into the room and look for the weapon.

Q: How did he respond?

A: Yes.

[...]

Q: Did you understand the defendant to be giving you permission to take the key?

A: Yes.

Q: Did you understand the defendant to be giving you permission to search the room?

A: Yes.

(Hernandez Tr. at 22; see also Suarez Tr. at 78–79.) Officer Hernandez recorded in his memo book that “Deft. Wilson, Walter gave consent and loc of firearm” at 18:50, (Def. Ex. A; Hernandez Tr. at 38–39), however, the officers did not memorialize in writing the Defendant's alleged consent at that time. (Hernandez Tr. at 23.) Officer Hernandez stated that the door of the patrol vehicle was open while he questioned the Defendant and that he did not draw his weapon, yell, or threaten the Defendant during the conversation. ( Id. at 23–24.)

Officer Suarez could not remember any of the details of the conversation other than the Defendant's characterization of the weapons in his bedroom as “toy guns.” (Suarez Tr. at 78–79.) Officer Suarez testified that he did not see the Defendant give Officer Hernandez a key and that the Defendant did not give him anything either. ( Id.)

According to Officer Hernandez, after he finished questioning the Defendant, he “grabbed the key” and “went back upstairs” to the 1392 Apartment where he “tried the key into the bedroom” but “[t]he key didn't work.” (Hernandez Tr. at 24–25; see also id. at 43–44.) Officer Hernandez then asked Ms. Slaughter, the alleged victim, “if she could go to the fire escape” that connected the 1392 Apartment's living room with the Defendant's bedroom, enter the bedroom through the window, and open it from the inside. ( Id. at 25.) She complied, allowing the officers to enter.⁵ ( Id.) They then observed in plain view “samurai swords” “on top of a bed” and “approximately 30 bags” of “marijuana on top of a dresser.” ( Id. at 25–26.) They did not see any guns. ⁶ ( Id. at 26.) The officers then returned downstairs to ask the Defendant for the exact location of the guns. ( Id. at 26.)

The Defendant provided a contrary account of his response to Officer Hernandez's attempt to gain his consent. In his statement to the Bronx District Attorney's Office, which was videotaped on May 10, 2012, the Defendant corroborated that Officer Hernandez asked him whether there was a gun in his room but denied providing Officer Hernandez with his keys:

Q: They brought you back to the apartment, is that what they did?

A: [...] They go to the building, they come back. He's like, um, do you have your keys on you? I'm like, yeah. He said, can I have them? I said no. He like, why not? I said, what you need my keys for? Ring the bell, you know they upstairs, ring the bell. [He said n]o, just give me your keys.

(Gov't Ex. 13 at 20:18:42–20:19:09.) Here, the Defendant's assertion that the officers do not need his keys because they know his sister is “upstairs” and therefore they should “ring the bell” indicate that he is referring to Officer Hernandez's request for keys to the building's entrance, not the officer's later request for keys to the door to the Defendant's bedroom. ⁷ According to the Defendant's declaration, he did not provide the officers with keys to his locked bedroom: “The officer then asked me for the keys to my locked bedroom so that he could search it. I refused to give him my keys.” ⁸ (Wilson Decl. ¶ 8.)

Ms. Leslie, the Defendant's girlfriend, testified that at some point after the officers had driven her and the Defendant back to 1392 Franklin Avenue and returned upstairs to the 1392 Apartment, one of the officers came back downstairs and searched through her purse without her consent, looking for her keys. (Tr. of Oct. 5, 2012 Hr'g, Test. of Sharmaine Leslie (“Leslie Tr.”)...