United States v. Canetha Johnson, 11th Cir. (2015)
United States v. Canetha Johnson, 11th Cir. (2015)
United States v. Canetha Johnson, 11th Cir. (2015)
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Case: 13-15773
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General Background
Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to this case are as follows. On April 1,
2013, DEA agents in San Diego, California, informed law enforcement in Tampa,
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Florida, that three drug couriers would soon be flying into Tampa carrying
methamphetamine. The three drug couriers were identified as the defendants.
DEA agents set up surveillance at the Tampa International Airport.
When the defendants arrived the next day, they were observed exiting the
terminal and getting into a car driven by Raul Carbajal, a co-defendant who later
pleaded guilty and testified at trial. Carbajal drove the defendants to a local hotel
and dropped them off. Thereafter, police stopped and searched Carbajals vehicle,
finding three cucumber-shaped packages containing a total of 834.1 grams of pure
methamphetamine.
Following his arrest, Carbajal told police that he had received the
methamphetamine from the defendants earlier that day.
defendants had secreted the drugs inside their bodies in order to pass through
security. Carbajal also admitted that he had picked up numerous drug couriers at
the Tampa International Airport over the previous six months, including Cooper
and Blanchard on several occasions.
Based on Carbajals statements, DEA agents who had remained at the hotel
went to the defendants hotel room. After being questioning by the agents, the
three defendants were arrested. The agents conducted an initial search of the
defendants belongings at the hotel and then took the items into custody.
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imprisonment of 168 months, 192 months, and 204 months, respectively. These
appeals followed.
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II.
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because they did not consent to entry. Further, they contend, any consent obtained
by DEA agents was not voluntarily given because it was the result of acquiescence
to a show of police authority.
In reviewing the denial of a motion to suppress, we review the district
courts findings of fact for clear error and its application of the law to those facts
de novo, construing all facts in the light most favorable to the party that prevailed
belowhere, the government. United States v. Gibson, 708 F.3d 1256, 1274 (11th
Cir. 2013).
The Fourth Amendment protects an individuals reasonable expectation of
privacy in a hotel room. 1 United States v. Mercer, 541 F.3d 1070, 1075 (11th Cir.
2008). Without a warrant, a search is reasonable only if it falls within a specific
exception to the warrant requirement. United States v. Watkins, 760 F.3d 1271,
1278 (11th Cir. 2014) (quotation marks omitted).
warrantless search or entry based on valid consent.
Thus, a
warrantless search or entry does not violate the Fourth Amendment where there is
voluntary consent given by a person with authority. Bates v. Harvey, 518 F.3d
1233, 1243 (11th Cir. 2008).
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There is no dispute in this case that the defendants had a reasonable expectation of
privacy in the hotel room.
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witnesses. United States v. Ramirez-Chilel, 289 F.3d 744, 749 (11th Cir. 2002).
And where, as here, opposing parties present directly conflicting accounts, the
district courts choice of whom to believe is typically conclusive unless the court
credits testimony that, because it is exceedingly improbable or contrary to the laws
of nature, no reasonable factfinder could accept as true. Id.
Here, the district court did not err in denying the first motion to suppress on
the basis that the agents obtained voluntary consent to enter the hotel room. At the
suppression hearing, the district court was presented with two conflicting versions
of events. According to the agents testimony, as summarized by the district court,
the plan was to make contact with Cooper and her codefendants and solicit their cooperation, failing which
they would be arrested. To effect this, Gordon initiated a
low key approach to the hotel room, in plain clothes
and without weapons drawn. Agents Burnside and
McGee had a hotel employee knock on the door to Room
509 under the pretense of room service and when the
door opened, the employee stepped away and the agents
identified themselves, exhibited their credentials and
explained they were conducting a follow-up
investigation. Within a matter of seconds, Gordon joined
them at the door, identified himself to Cooper, and asked
to speak with her inside. According to Gordon, the
conversation was very cordial, Cooper invited them in,
walked over to the bed and sat down. The agents entered
and were joined by three more. Two agents were
assigned to question each Defendant. Cooper was
questioned in the room, while Johnson and Blanchard
were questioned outside.
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have been intimidating, if not coercive, the court nonetheless determined that
Coopers consent was voluntary.
supporting the voluntariness of consent, including the following: the agents were
in plain clothes with no weapons visible; they displayed their credentials, identified
themselves, and explained that they were conducting a narcotics investigation and
wished to speak with the defendants; the conversation was calm, cordial, and nonthreatening; Coopers testimony demonstrated that she was intelligent and capable
of refusing consent; and no contraband or illegal substances were found in the
room, indicating that the defendants would not have been motivated to prevent
entry to law enforcement. See Blake, 888 F.2d at 798. The fact that the agents did
not advise the defendants of their right to refuse consent does not, alone, vitiate
that consent. See Schneckloth, 412 U.S. at 247-49, 93 S. Ct. at 2058-59. In sum,
the circumstances do not show that Cooper was intimidated or forced into
consenting to the entry by a show of authority from the officers.
Blanchard and Cooper argue that the agents engaged in trickery by having
a hotel employee knock on the door to the hotel room and then, once the door was
opened, entering the room based on only the defendants failure to object. See
Ramirez-Chilel, 289 F.3d at 752 ([T]he government may not show consent to
enter from the defendants failure to object to the entry. To do so would be to
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justify entry by consent and consent by entry. (quotation marks omitted)); see also
United States v. Bautista, 362 F.3d 584, 591-92 (9th Cir. 2004) (same).
Under the circumstances, the trickery engaged in by the DEA to have the
defendants open the door does not undermine the consent obtained thereafter. Nor
do the facts show a simple failure to object to entry. The facts, as found by the
district court, demonstrate that after the door was opened, Cooper and the agents
engaged in a cordial conversation, the agents calmly explained the purpose of their
presence and requested entry, and then Cooper, with knowledge that the agents
were conducting a narcotics investigation, invited the agents into the room. Even
assuming that this invitation was non-verbal, Cooper gave officers the type of
implied consent that we have found sufficiently voluntary in similar
circumstances. See Ramirez-Chilel, 289 F.3d at 751-52 (finding a defendants
yielding the right-of-way to officers at the front door to be voluntary consent to
enter where four officers were present and no guns were drawn).
In contrast to the purported consent at issue in Bautista, Coopers consent
was not simply the product of compliance with police demands. See Bautista, 362
F.3d at 591-92 (holding that opening the door in response to a police demand and
then failing to object when officers entered was not voluntary consent); see also
Tobin, 923 F.2d at 1512 (explaining that courts have held that consent was not
voluntary in cases in which police have used their position to demand entry);
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United States v. Edmondson, 791 F.2d 1512, 1514-15 (11th Cir. 1986) (finding a
defendants consentopening the door, stepping back, and placing his hands
upon his headinvoluntary where it was prompted by a number of Federal Bureau
of Investigation agents who had surrounded Edmondsons apartment, drawn their
weapons, and knocked on the door yelling, FBI. Open the door.). Here, in view
of the courts factual findings, the DEA did not demand entry and did not enter
before receiving implied or express consent from Cooper.
In sum, the district court did not clearly err in finding that Cooper
voluntarily consented to the agents entry into the hotel room.
III.
motions to suppress evidence found during a search of their luggage in the hotel
room. The search, they contend, cannot be justified as a search incident to arrest
because neither Cooper nor Blanchard could have accessed their luggage when
they were arrested.
A search incident to a lawful arrest is a well-established exception to the
warrant requirement. Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332, 338, 129 S. Ct. 1710, 1716
(2009). Under this exception, officers may only search areas within the arrestees
control, construed as the area from within which [s]he might gain possession of a
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weapon or destructible evidence. Holmes v. Kucynda, 321 F.3d 1069, 1082 (11th
Cir. 2003) (brackets and internal quotation marks omitted).
We do not decide whether the DEA agents search of the defendants
personal belongings exceeded the permissible scope of a search incident to arrest
because Cooper and Blanchard do not challenge the district courts determination
that, following the defendants arrest, DEA agents took custody of the personal
belongings and later conducted a lawful inventory search. Any evidence obtained
from the belongings introduced at trial either was or could have been discovered
during the inventory search. See United States v. Virden, 488 F.3d 1317, 1322
(11th Cir. 2007) (Under the inevitable discovery exception, if the prosecution can
establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the information would have
ultimately been recovered by lawful means, the evidence will be admissible.).
Therefore, we affirm the denial of the second motion to suppress on this alternative
basis.
Inventory searches of an arrestees personal property are a well-defined
exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement.
United States v.
Farley, 607 F.3d 1294, 1333 (11th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted).
When police take custody of a defendants belongings, such as a bag or suitcase,
they may open the item and itemize its contents pursuant to standard inventory
procedures. Id. Inventory searches of property lawfully in police custody are
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We are bound by all Fifth Circuit decisions issued before October 1, 1981. Bonner v.
City of Prichard, 661 F.2d 1206, 1209 (11th Cir. 1981) (en banc).
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(Because the inventory search ground is dispositive, we need not address the
search incident to arrest ground.).
IV.
United States v. Howard, 742 F.3d 1334, 1341 (11th Cir. 2014). We view the
evidence presented at trial, and draw all reasonable inferences therefrom, in the
light most favorable to the government. United States v. Hansen, 262 F.3d 1217,
1236 (11th Cir. 2001). We will not disturb a guilty verdict unless, given the
evidence in the record, no reasonable trier of fact could have found that the
evidence establishes the defendants guilt. Howard, 742 F.3d at 1341; United
States v. Rodriguez, 218 F.3d 1243, 1244 (11th Cir. 2000). We do not second
guess the jurys determination of credibility issues.
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Before the
defendants flew into Tampa on April 2, Carbajal was informed by his cousin,
Roberto Carbajal, the head of the drug-smuggling operation, that three women
drug couriers would be flying in from San Diego. When the defendants arrived at
the airport, DEA agents observed Carbajal pick up them up and drive them to the
hotel. On the way to the hotel, the defendants put the methamphetamine on the car
floor. For their part, each of the defendants was to be paid $1,100. At the hotel,
Johnson admitted to a DEA agent that she was in Tampa to bring the stuff, that
she expected to be paid $1,100 or $1,200 for delivering the stuff, and that she
had delivered the stuff to Carbajal. The agent testified that it was clear to him
that the stuff referred to methamphetamine.
In addition, a reasonable jury could have inferred from the shape and
number of packages recovered from Carbajals car that Blanchard, Cooper, and
Johnson each personally transported one of the packages of meth. Janette Vega, an
admitted drug courier in the conspiracy who had previously worked with Cooper
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and Blanchard, testified about how the drug-smuggling operation packaged drugs
in a shape that allowed for vaginal smuggling.
Viewing this evidence in the light most favorable to the government, a
reasonable jury could have concluded that Johnson was not just associated with coconspirators or merely present in an area where a drug transaction occurred, but
instead was a knowing and voluntary participant in a conspiracy to distribute
methamphetamine. See Reeves, 742 F.3d at 497; Hansen, 262 F.3d at 1236.
Therefore, the district court did not err in denying Johnsons motion for judgment
of acquittal as to the sufficiency of the evidence for her conspiracy conviction.
B.
Blanchard and Johnson argue that their mere presence in the back seat of a
car that contained contraband was insufficient to support a conviction for the
substantive offense of possession with intent to distribute. See United States v.
Stanley, 24 F.3d 1314, 1319-20 (11th Cir. 1994) (holding that something more
than mere presence in the car in which drugs are found is required to sustain a
conviction for the substantive offense of possession with intent to distribute). The
government, they assert, did not present any evidence that Blanchard or Johnson
either actually or constructively possessed the methamphetamine found in
Carbajals vehicle. At best, they contend, the governments evidence showed that
they simply had knowledge of the methamphetamine in the vehicle.
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Once again, we disagree. The evidence shows more than Blanchards and
Johnsons
mere
presence
in
the
car
and
simple
knowledge of
the
This was
corroborated by the fact that Carbajal intended to pay each of the women an equal
amount. In addition, Johnson stated that she had delivered the stuff to Carbajal
and expected to be paid. There was also evidence that Blanchard previously had
engaged in similar transactions with Carbajal. Based on these facts, a reasonable
jury could have determined that both Johnson and Blanchard each knowingly
possessed methamphetamine.
Even if the evidence was somehow insufficient to show possession by either
Blanchard or Johnson, the evidence was clearly sufficient to show that the
methamphetamine came from at least one of the three defendants. And the jury in
this case was instructed on both Pinkerton 3 and aiding-and-abetting theories of
liability for the substantive possession count. Under Pinkerton, Each party to a
continuing conspiracy may be vicariously liable for substantive criminal offenses
committed by a co-conspirator during the course and in the furtherance of the
conspiracy, notwithstanding the partys non-participation in the offenses or lack of
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knowledge thereof. United States v. Mothersill, 87 F.3d 1214, 1218 (11th Cir.
1996). The individual culpability of a particular conspirator does not need to be
assessed, provided the substantive crime was a reasonably foreseeable
consequence of the conspiracy. Id. (internal quotation marks omitted).
Given what we have discussed previously, the evidence was sufficient for a
reasonable jury to find that both Blanchard and Johnson were guilty of conspiracy
and that the substantive crime of possession of methamphetamine with intent to
distribute was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of a drug-trafficking
conspiracy. See id. Consequently, Blanchard and Johnson remain liable even if
they did not actually possess or distribute the methamphetamine. See id. Thus, the
district court did not err in denying their motions for judgment of acquittal.
V.
Conclusion
For the reasons stated, we affirm all convictions.
AFFIRMED.
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