Opinion ID: 1195594
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Other Pretrial Issues

Text: A. Motion To Suppress. At a proffer interview in January 2003, Price told investigators that Bolden hid the handgun used to shoot Ley under a gutter behind Bolden's rented residence. FBI Agent Terrence McGinnis left the interview, drove to the residence, and entered the backyard. He saw a white plastic bag peeking out from under a gutter, removed the bag, and found the murder weapon, a loaded .22 caliber revolver. Bolden argues the district court should have suppressed the handgun because it was found during a warrantless search of his residence conducted without the consent of Bolden or his landlord. The district court denied the motion to suppress for lack of standing, that is, a subjective expectation of privacy in the exterior of his former residence that was objectively reasonable. See United States v. Stallings, 28 F.3d 58, 60 (8th Cir.1994); United States v. Kiser, 948 F.2d 418, 423 (8th Cir.1991), cert. denied, 503 U.S. 983, 112 S.Ct. 1666, 118 L.Ed.2d 387 (1992). After a hearing, the district court found that Bolden's landlord initiated eviction proceedings when she heard of his arrest because he was delinquent on rent payments. The eviction was final in November 2002, the landlord retook possession in early December, and the residence was vandalized and robbed well before Price's proffer interview. Bolden argued that the landlord's history of forgiving his rent deficiencies and the fact that eviction notices were returned undelivered gave him a reasonable expectation of privacy in the premises. The district court disagreed, noting that Bolden knew he was facing eviction before killing Ley, yet made no attempt to prevent eviction and asserted no continuing possessory interest in the residence after his arrest: [T]he defendant's lack of any possessory interest in the premises at the time of the search, his failure to exclude others from entering the premises, and his failure to take precautions to maintain privacy support the conclusion that the defendant had no subjective expectation of privacy and that no such expectation was objectively reasonable. The court's finding that Bolden had no subjective expectation of privacy is not clearly erroneous. See Kiser, 948 F.2d at 423 (standard of review). And on these facts, we agree with the court's legal conclusion that any subjective expectation of privacy in the exterior of his former residence was not objectively reasonable. See United States v. Hoey, 983 F.2d 890, 892 (8th Cir.1993); United States v. Rambo, 789 F.2d 1289, 1295-96 (8th Cir.1986). The motion to suppress was properly denied. B. Motion To Quash a Venire Panel. During voir dire, the district court asked whether any member of one panel had read or heard anything about Bolden's alleged crime. Prospective juror 168 responded: Close friend of mine works with the victim's aunt. And when I was telling him about my jury duty here, he told me what she had told him about what happened and the family's wishes and things like that. He later stated, I think what [my friend] told me may influence my decision . . . [p]ossibly in the second phase, if there was a second phase. Bolden made no contemporaneous objection but later moved to quash the entire panel. The district court denied the motion, noting the panel could not infer from 168's statement that Ley's family favored the death penalty. The court struck 168 for cause. It later instructed the jury: You are not to be influenced by the speculation concerning what sentence you think the victim's family might wish to see imposed on the defendant. There is no evidence before you concerning what opinions the members of the victim's family might have on what sentence is imposed. Indeed, there is no evidence that the family members of the victim have any opinions on the issue at all. On appeal Bolden argues the district court erred in refusing to quash the panel, an issue we review for abuse of discretion. We agree with the district court that juror 168's ambiguous, unsolicited statement did not so infect the panel with possible bias as to require that it be quashed. Bolden's counsel spent portions of the next three days exhaustively questioning each potential juror for bias and preconceptions. Moreover, striking juror 168 for cause and cautioning the jury not to speculate about what sentence Ley's family might want were adequate protections against possible improper prejudice. There was no abuse of discretion. See United States v. Rosnow, 977 F.2d 399, 411-12 (8th Cir.1992), cert. denied, 507 U.S. 990, 113 S.Ct. 1596, 123 L.Ed.2d 159 (1993).