Opinion ID: 2974031
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Newsom’s arrest

Text: On November 23, 2003, Newsom was driven to his mother’s residence by a friend, Alexis Craig. Newsom arrived and joined some family members outside to talk. A few minutes later, Carlos Blacksmith pulled up in a sport utility vehicle (SUV), stepped out to talk to the family, and left the vehicle running. Newsom told Blacksmith that “he didn’t have no business riding around like that with that truck dirty like that.” Blacksmith agreed and asked Newsom to take the SUV and “detail it up” for him. Prior to this date, Newsom had on occasion detailed (meaning cleaned) cars for money, earning approximately $30 to $40 per car plus tips. Often this cleaning was accomplished by taking vehicles to a mobile detailing van, which contained all of the equipment necessary to perform the required tasks (water hoses, vacuums, etc.). Newsom got into Blacksmith’s SUV and left to take it to the mobile detailing van. He was not wearing his seatbelt, and he lit a marijuana cigarette while driving. After Newsom drove a few blocks, a police officer in a patrol car started following the SUV because Newsom had failed to stop at a stop sign and was not wearing his seat belt. While following Newsom, the officer noticed him “moving around inside the car” and anticipated that he was going to get out and flee on foot. The officer testified in further detail about Newsom’s movement in the vehicle: I was looking through the back glass of the vehicle, and I could see the driver moving appeared [sic] to me as if he was maybe putting something under the seat. In the 12 years I have been a policemen [sic], several people have concealed things on me, and it is the same type of movement, a movement towards the front where the upper part of their body will disappear momentarily. Eventually the officer pulled Newsom over and approached the SUV. Newsom furnished someone else’s photo identification upon the request of the officer. After the officer smelled the odor of burning marijuana and asked Newsom about it, Newsom replied that he was in fact smoking marijuana. Newsom gave the officer the remaining portion of the marijuana cigarette. After that, Newsom admitted to the officer that he had given him a false name at first because there was an outstanding warrant for Newsom’s arrest stemming from a previous incident of driving without a license, and he knew that he was going to jail. The officer then asked Newsom to step out of the vehicle, handcuffed him, and put him in the back of the patrol car. Upon returning to the vehicle, the officer immediately saw through the open door a pistol under the driver’s seat. A full search of the vehicle revealed Newsom’s wallet in the front seat, a magazine with 22 rounds of ammunition pushed between the driver’s seat and the center console, and a single round of ammunition lying loose on the floorboard in front of the passenger’s seat. The officer testified that he asked Newsom about the gun and that Newsom told him that “he had never touched the gun and didn’t know it was there.” But Newsom also said that the gun was not stolen. There were no fingerprints on the gun or ammunition. In January of 2004, a federal warrant was issued for Newsom’s arrest. He was apprehended by federal law enforcement agents the following month. While being transported to the federal building in downtown Nashville, Newsom asked the agents “what kind of time he was looking at for this charge.” One of the federal officers said “that the maximum penalty was ten years but that there was [sic] a lot of variables that were taken into consideration to come up with his final sentence.” Those present gave differing accounts of Newsom’s response to this information. One officer said that Newsom “stated that there was nothing he could do because he had that gun.” The No. 05-5030 United States v. Newsom Page 3 other officer testified that Newsom replied with “a statement to the effect of, Well, there is nothing I can say. Ain’t nothing I can say about that because I had that gun. I had the gun. I had that gun. Something along those lines.” In contrast, Newsom testified that he had replied: “[S]ince y’all told me I can’t get out on a bond and that I am facing up to ten years federal time, I told them I might as well say the gun is mine then. I told them I might as well say that the gun is mine. What chance do I have?” Newsom specifically denied making the statement “I had that gun.”