Opinion ID: 788500
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Controlled Delivery on May 19, 2000

Text: 8 On May 19, 2000, Robinson was arrested following a controlled delivery of a package at a Pak Mail facility in Morristown, Tennessee. The facts surrounding this incident derive primarily from the testimony of federal Postal Inspector Sam Romano and Detective Dan Cox and Inspector Randy Noe of the Morristown Police Department. According to Inspector Romano, upon a routine visit to the Knoxville, Tennessee Airport on May 19, 2000 to review incoming mail, he observed a package with a return address of Inglewood, California, that was being shipped to a Healthy Hair Barber Shop in Morristown. 4 Romano testified that several factors, including the smell of marijuana, a return address from a known drug distribution area, and handwritten labels, made him suspect the package. In addition, a preliminary investigation revealed that the return address was a private residence. 9 Accordingly, Inspector Romano took the package back to his office, where he contacted the Knox County Sheriff's Department and requested the assistance of a drug-sniffing dog. Romano then placed the package in a line-up with four others, and the drug dog, Blec, positively alerted to the suspect package. After applying for and obtaining a federal search warrant, Romano opened the package and discovered 13 round cabbage-sized balls, weighing almost 14 pounds in total and testing positive for marijuana. Romano then contacted federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) agents and the Morristown Police Department to begin preparations for a controlled delivery of the package at the Morristown Pak Mail facility. 10 An investigation conducted in advance of the controlled delivery suggested a link between the package and a maroon or dark red Ford Ranger pickup truck. Soon after their arrival at the mail facility, officers noticed a maroon Ford Explorer with two male occupants driving slowly past vehicles in the parking lot, pausing, and apparently looking into the parked cars. Eventually, the driver dropped the passenger off at a group of stores near the Pak Mail facility, and then parked the vehicle, entered the Pak Mail facility, and exited with the package. The package was signed for by Derrick Palmer, an authorized recipient of packages at Box 115. 11 After this individual, later identified as Robinson, exited the Pak Mail facility, Inspector Romano approached him and placed him under arrest when he returned to within 30 to 50 feet of his vehicle. 5 Romano testified that he then conducted a brief survey of the vehicle for any other people who might have been hiding inside, or for any weapons that could be easily reached. Inside the vehicle, Romano spotted a long, narrow box labeled as containing a shotgun, as well as a black backpack. Upon opening the box, Romano discovered a 12-gauge shotgun with the barrel removed from the receiver. 6 A subsequent inventory search of the vehicle at the Morristown Police Department recorded the shotgun, shotgun ammunition, a 9mm semi-automatic pistol and a loaded ammunition clip in the black backpack, and a variety of other items, many of which referenced Robinson's Derrick Palmer alias. 12 Inspector Romano acknowledged at trial that the search warrant he had obtained before opening the package did not explicitly provide authorization to conduct a controlled delivery. He and Detective Cox both testified, however, that the package remained within the constructive custody of Detective Cox at all times. Cox testified that he stayed inside the Pak Mail facility with the package, and was no more than 10-15 yards away from the package at all times prior to its delivery to Robinson. 13 After Robinson and McGill were arrested, a woman later identified as Dena Carmichael phoned the Pak Mail facility, claiming to be Kelly Banks (in whose name the mailbox was registered), and seeking to determine whether a package had arrived. Upon attempting to retrieve the package later that day, she was told by a clerk at the facility that the package already had been retrieved. 14