[DO NOT PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT

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No. 19-13576

Non-Argument Calendar

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D.C. Docket No. 5:18-cr-00048-JDW-PRL-1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 

 Plaintiff - Appellee,

 versus

JOVAN DEMETRIUS FREDERICKS,

a.k.a. Jovan D. Fredericks, 

 Defendant - Appellant.

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Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Florida

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(May 26, 2020)

Before WILLIAM PRYOR, MARTIN and ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM: 

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Jovan Demetrius Fredericks appeals his convictions for being a felon in 

possession of a firearm, for possessing narcotics with the intent to distribute, and 

for possessing a firearm during and in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. 18 

U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(e), 924(c)(1)(A)(i); 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C). 

Fredericks appeals the denial of his motion to suppress. He argues that the officers 

violated his right to be free from an unlawful seizure under the Fourth Amendment 

when they exceeded their authority to conduct an investigatory stop and arrested 

him without probable cause or a warrant. We affirm.

We review the denial of a motion to suppress evidence as a mixed question 

of law and fact. United States v. Perez, 443 F.3d 772, 774 (11th Cir. 2006). We 

review rulings of law de novo and related findings of fact for clear error. Id.

The district court did not err by denying Fredericks’s motion to suppress. As 

Officer Erik Cabrales of the Ocala Police Department and Officer Rodriguez

patrolled an apartment complex known for violence and drug sales, they observed 

Fredericks sitting outside holding a cigarette that had been hand-rolled in brown 

paper. Cabrales noticed Fredericks was partially concealing the brown, hand-rolled 

cigarette in the palm of his left hand. So he asked Fredericks what he had in his 

hand, but Fredericks did not respond. Cabrales asked again, and Fredericks

displayed a cigarette lighter in his other hand but continued to conceal the 

cigarette. The district court found after viewing body-camera video from the 

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officers that Cabrales then told Fredericks, “I see what you got in your hand, Man. 

I could see it from where I was at.” At this point, the officers “ha[d] a reasonable, 

articulable suspicion that criminal activity [was] afoot,” Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 

U.S. 119, 123 (2000), and could detain Fredericks to investigate. 

Cabrales asked Fredericks to stand up. But when Fredericks stood, he

abruptly reached behind his back with his hand that was holding the cigarette. 

Cabrales grabbed Fredericks’s arm to prevent him from reaching behind his back. 

As Cabrales did so, he felt a bulge on Fredericks’s right hip, which he suspected 

was a firearm. Cabrales immediately advised Rodriguez, “He’s got a gun on him.” 

For their safety, the officers placed Fredericks in handcuffs before removing the 

concealed firearm from Fredericks’s waist. The officers had the right to handcuff 

Fredericks to ensure their safety and to complete their investigation. Cabrales also 

had probable cause to arrest Fredericks based on the firearm concealed under 

Fredericks’s shirt. See Fla. Stat. § 790.01(2) (“A person who carries a concealed 

firearm on or about his or her person commits a felony of the third degree”); Fla. 

Stat. § 790.001(2) (defining “concealed firearm” as “any firearm . . . which is 

carried on or about a person in such a manner as to conceal the firearm from the 

ordinary sight of another person”). As the officers escorted Fredericks to a patrol 

car, he tugged repeatedly at a pocket, from which the officers had the right to seize 

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a black pouch containing methylenedioxymethamphetamine,

1 marijuana, cocaine, 

and heroin. 

We AFFIRM Fredericks’s convictions.

1

 After the incident, law enforcement tested the substance in the cigarette Fredericks was 

holding when Cabrales and Rodriguez encountered him. It also contained methylenedioxy

methamphetamine.

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