Document ID: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca8-14-01944/USCOURTS-ca8-14-01944-0/pdf.json

Parties Involved:
Shaquandis Thurmond
Appellant
United States of America
Appellee

Document Text:

United States Court of Appeals

For the Eighth Circuit

___________________________

No. 14-1944

___________________________

United States of America

lllllllllllllllllllll Plaintiff - Appellee

v.

Shaquandis Thurmond

lllllllllllllllllllll Defendant - Appellant

____________

Appeal from United States District Court 

for the Northern District of Iowa - Cedar Rapids

____________

 Submitted: February 13, 2015

 Filed: April 13, 2015

____________

Before BYE, BEAM, and BENTON, Circuit Judges.

____________

BEAM, Circuit Judge.

Shaquandis Thurmond appeals the district court's denial of his motion to 1

suppress, having preserved the right to do so following his entry of a conditional

The Honorable Linda R. Reade, Chief Judge, United States District Court for

1

the Northern District of Iowa, adopting the Report and Recommendation of the

Honorable Jon Stuart Scoles, Chief United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern

District of Iowa.

Appellate Case: 14-1944 Page: 1 Date Filed: 04/13/2015 Entry ID: 4264405 
guilty plea to possession of an unregistered (short-barreled) firearm in violation of 26

U.S.C. §§ 5845(a), 5861(d), and 5871. We affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

As set out in the warrant application relevant here, on February 6, 2013, the

Cedar Rapids police department received a tip from an informant that "a black male

and black female are selling crack cocaine" from a specified address in Cedar Rapids. 

This informant also stated that the people who reside at the residence drove a "new

car," and identified the license plate number. Police discovered, however, that the

number provided was registered to a 1994 GMC Vandura. Police records revealed

no other noted recent activity at the residence in question. 

On February 18, 2013, an officer went to the address and did a "trash pull,"

collecting thirteen black trash bags next to the alley behind the residence. Of

relevance here, one of the bags contained "2 suspected marijuana roaches with green

plant material inside that look[ed] and smell[ed] like marijuana, blunt material, blunt

paper, 2 baggie knots, cigarillos wrappers, and a mail document from the State of

Iowa Disabilities Determination Service Bureau dated 01-25-13 to Shaquandis

Thurmond" at the very same address. The warrant explained that blunt material isthe

tobacco from a cigarillo cigar that can be removed and replaced with marijuana prior

to smoking the cigar. A field test of the suspected marijuana tested positive for

tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). On February 19, the officer also saw a white van

parked in the rear of the residence with the matching license plate number as that

previously provided by the informant. The officer conducted surveillance at the

residence again on February 20, witnessed two individuals coming and going from

the residence, saw the same van arrive at the residence and watched a black male exit

the vehicle and enter the residence. The officer clarified in the warrant that he saw

no "activity consistent with the sale of illegal drugs" based on this surveillance. 

Police records revealed that Thurmond was arrested about one month prior for

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possession of a controlled substance and had a juvenile criminal history including an

assault and possession of a controlled substance. 

The state judicial officer concluded that there was probable cause to believe

that contraband would be found at this residence and a search warrant was issued. 

Upon execution, officers seized a sawed-off shotgun, marijuana and paraphernalia,

and documents associated with Thurmond, and the instant charge ensued. In response

to Thurmond's motion to suppress, the magistrate judge and the district court

determined, based on relevant precedent and the facts presented, that not only was 2

the warrant supported by probable cause but that, additionally, the Leon good-faith 3

exception would apply here as well. Thurmond challenges the court's ruling on both

issues. 

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal, Thurmond first argues that the search warrant was not supported by

probable cause. In an appeal of a district court's denial of a motion to suppress, we

review the court'sfindings of fact for clear error and its legal determinations de novo. 

United States v. Jones, 535 F.3d 886, 889-90 (8th Cir. 2008). Whether a warrant is

supported by probable cause is a legal determination and is based on whether the

warrant is supported by facts that would "justify a prudent person in the belief that

We do note that neither the magistrate judge nor the district court used the

2

informant's statements included in the warrant application as a basis for their

determination on the issue of probable cause. The magistrate judge noted the

government's concession that the tip from the informant did not supply the probable

cause in issuing the warrant and we follow suit on appeal, reviewing only the trash

pull evidence and the remaining information in the warrant application, including

Thurmond's prior criminal record. 

United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897 (1984). 3

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there is a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a

particular place." United States v. Riedesel, 987 F.2d 1383, 1390 (8th Cir. 1993).

On the issue of probable cause, Thurmond's argument is twofold: (1) the

discovery of only a de minimis user quantity of marijuana negates a finding of

probable cause in this case, and (2) the two-day delay in obtaining the warrant

following the trash pull extinguished probable cause, if it existed at all. We address

each in turn. 

Thurmond argues that evidence of a small amount of discarded, past, and

undated marijuana use is no cause to search someone's home. He claims that, at best,

there was evidence of a single nonrecurring crime, insufficient to support probable

cause for the warrant, and that even if there was some reason to think that the

residence could contain additional evidence, such conjecture was grounded in

supposition, not probable cause. All agree that two factually similar casesinformour

analysis today–United States v. Briscoe, 317 F.3d 906 (8th Cir. 2003) and United

States v. Allebach, 526 F.3d 385 (8th Cir. 2008). 

In Briscoe, this court concluded that items found in a trash pull, standing alone,

may be sufficient to establish probable cause. 317 F.3d at 908. There, officers

retrieved forty marijuana seeds and twenty-five marijuana stems fromthe defendant's

garbage. Id. at 907. The court discussed this court's established precedent that, "the

recovery of drugs or drug paraphernalia from the garbage contributessignificantly to

establishing probable cause," and that such evidence was sufficient corroborating

evidence establishing probable cause. Id. at 908. The question in Briscoe, however,

was whether the evidence retrieved fromthe defendant's garbage, standing alone, was

sufficient evidence to establish probable cause. Id. It was. The court held that "the

presence of discarded marijuana stems and seeds reasonably suggest[s] that ongoing

marijuana consumption or trafficking is occurring . . . [and] the simple possession of

marijuana seeds is itself a crime under both federal and state law." Id. 

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The court in Allebach reached the same conclusion. In Allebach, acting on

citizen complaints of frequent short-term traffic at a residence, police officers

searched the defendant's trash bags and found "two plastic bags with white residue,

two corners torn from plastic bags, Brillo pads, a film canister with white residue

[(which tested positive for cocaine)], and documents bearing Allebach's name and

address." 526 F.3d at 386. Challenging the sufficiency of probable cause supporting

the search warrant, the defendant argued that the materials from his trash did not

support a finding of probable cause. Id. at 387. Relying on Briscoe, the Allebach

court had "little hesitancy in concluding a reasonable magistrate would conclude the

materials found in the trash . . . were sufficient to establish probable cause that

cocaine was being possessed and consumed in Allebach's residence." Id. 

In light of Briscoe and Allebach, we likewise determine that the search warrant

issued was supported by probable cause. In addition to Thurmond's earlier arrest for

possession of a controlled substance and his juvenile history with controlled

substances, officers retrieved two suspected marijuana roaches with green plant

material inside that looked and smelled like marijuana (one of which field-tested

positive for THC), blunt material, blunt paper, two baggie knots, and cigarillo

wrapper. These facts are sufficient to lead a prudent person to believe that there was

a "fair probability" that contraband would be found in the residence. Riedesel, 987

F.2d at 1390. 

Noted above, Thurmond asks this court to distinguish the holdings in Briscoe

and Allebach based on the quantity and quality of the contraband found in

Thurmond's trash–that there was too little to support a finding of probable cause–but

there is nothing in those cases to suggest that they were decided based on the exact

quality or quantity of the evidence unique to them. As Thurmond acknowledges,

each analysis of probable cause, on some level, requires "line-drawing" based on the

totality of circumstances unique to each case. We agree. Here, essentially discerning

the "line," we determine that this case falls on the side supporting probable cause. As

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additionally mentioned inBriscoe, the simple possession ofmarijuana itself is a crime

under Iowa (relevant here) and federal law. Briscoe, 317 F.3d at 908; Iowa Code

124.401(5) ("It is unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to possess a

controlled substance . . . . "). Accordingly, based on the totality of the circumstances,

including Thurmond's history with controlled substances and the contraband found

in the trash pull, we affirm the district court's finding of probable cause. 

Thurmond additionally argues that the officers' two-day delay in seeking the

warrant following the trash pull breaks any thread of alleged probable cause, if it

existed at all. He argues that the duration of probable cause is the inherent nature of

the crime and here, since the trash pull discovery allegedly indicated only a single

instance of possession according to Thurmond, probable cause quickly dwindled–in

less than two days. See Bastida v. Henderson, 487 F.2d 860, 864 (5th Cir. 1973)

(acknowledging the possibility argued by Thurmond). We disagree that the two-day

delay diminished probable cause here. These officers conducted a trash pull and then,

reasonably, conducted a bit ofsurveillance, which ended up not revealing much more

to them at the time. Seeking the warrant on the second day following the initial trash

pull did nothing to lessen the probable cause determination. E.g., United States v.

Smith, 581 F.3d 692, 694 (8th Cir. 2009) (issuing a warrant based, in part, on a trash

pull occurring "within the past 48 hours"). 

III. CONCLUSION

For the reasons stated herein, we affirm the district court's denial of

Thurmond's motion to suppress. 

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______________________________

Given our affirmance on the grounds stated in this opinion, we need not

4

address Thurmond's second claim on appeal regarding whether the good-faith

exception to probable cause articulated in Leon applies. 

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