Opinion ID: 788754
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: 8 Factual findings supporting a district court's ruling on a motion to suppress are upheld unless clearly erroneous, but [t]he court's final determination as to the reasonableness of the search is a question of law reviewed de novo. United States v. Galloway, 316 F.3d 624, 628 (6th Cir.2003) (upholding the district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence that was found during a customs inspection). Where the district court has denied the motion to suppress, the appellate court must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the government. United States v. Erwin, 155 F.3d 818, 822 (6th Cir.1998) (en banc) (upholding the district court's denial of a motion to suppress evidence that was found during a search of the defendant's vehicle). 9

10 The Fourth Amendment protects [t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. U.S. Const. amend. IV. Searches of vehicles must meet the test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment before evidence obtained as a result of such searches is admissible. Preston v. United States, 376 U.S. 364, 366, 84 S.Ct. 881, 11 L.Ed.2d 777 (1964). 11 Unlike searches of a suspect's home, which require a warrant unless they fall within one of several well-defined exceptions, see Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 474, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971), searches of a suspect's vehicle without a warrant have been found reasonable in many circumstances. In particular, the police can search the vehicle occupied by a person being lawfully arrested without first obtaining a search warrant. See New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 460, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981) (holding that when a policeman has made a lawful custodial arrest of the occupant of an automobile, he may, as a contemporaneous incident of that arrest, search the passenger compartment of that automobile); Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 763, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969) (noting that it is entirely reasonable for the arresting officer to search ... the area into which an arrestee might reach in order to grab a weapon or evidentiary items); Preston, 376 U.S. at 367, 84 S.Ct. 881 (holding, in the context of the search of a suspect's car, that the police can search things under the accused's immediate control, and ... the place where he is arrested) (citations omitted). 12 Herndon correctly notes in his brief that Belton did not settle the question of whether a vehicle can be searched incident to an arrest if the suspect is no longer occupying the vehicle at the time that the police initiate contact. This circuit's cases have also left some doubt about this point. Compare United States v. Strahan, 984 F.2d 155, 159 (6th Cir.1993) (holding that Belton was inapplicable to the search of an automobile when the occupant was approximately thirty feet from his vehicle when arrested), with United States v. White, 871 F.2d 41, 44 (6th Cir.1989) (upholding the constitutionality of the search of an arrestee's vehicle where the arrestee was in the vehicle when the police initiated contact, but was out of the vehicle at the time of his arrest). 13 Recently, however, the Supreme Court has clarified the scope of Belton. In Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615, 124 S.Ct. 2127, 158 L.Ed.2d 905 (2004), the Court held that  Belton governs even when an officer does not make contact until the person arrested has left the vehicle. Id. at 2129. So long as an arrestee is the sort of `recent occupant' of a vehicle such as petitioner was here, officers may search that vehicle pursuant to the arrest. Id. at 2132. The circumstances giving rise to the search in Thornton were nearly identical to those in the present case, and they leave little doubt that Herndon is the same sort of recent occupant as was Thornton: 14 After petitioner passed him, [Officer] Nichols ran a check on petitioner's license tags, which revealed that the tags had been issued to a 1982 Chevy two-door and not to a Lincoln Town Car, the model of car petitioner was driving. Before Nichols had an opportunity to pull him over, petitioner drove into a parking lot, parked, and got out of the vehicle. Nichols saw petitioner leave his vehicle as he pulled in behind him. He parked the patrol car, accosted petitioner, and asked him for his driver's license. He also told him that his license tags did not match the vehicle that he was driving. 15 Petitioner appeared nervous.... Nichols asked petitioner if he had any narcotics or weapons on him or in his vehicle. Petitioner said no. Nichols then asked petitioner if he could pat him down, to which petitioner agreed.... [After the petitioner revealed that he was carrying narcotics,] Nichols handcuffed petitioner, informed him that he was under arrest, and placed him in the back seat of the patrol car. He then searched petitioner's vehicle and found a ... handgun under the driver's seat. 16 Id. at 2129. 17 Indeed, the concerns regarding officer safety and the destruction of evidence cited by the Thornton court, id. at 2131, apply with at least equal force here because, when the police approached Herndon, the door of his truck was still open and he was standing only a few feet away. The search of Herndon's truck thus falls squarely within the range of searches deemed permissible by the Supreme Court in Belton and Thornton.
18 Both parties have argued at length about whether the search of Herndon's truck was a valid inventory search. See United States v. Lumpkin, 159 F.3d 983, 987 (6th Cir.1998) (noting that officers can conduct inventory searches of vehicles lawfully taken into custody, and citing Colorado v. Bertine, 479 U.S. 367, 372, 107 S.Ct. 738, 93 L.Ed.2d 739 (1987), for the proposition that these searches serve to protect an owner's property while it is in the custody of the police, to insure against claims of lost, stolen or vandalized property, and to guard the police from danger). Because the search yielding the gun was valid as a search incident to Herndon's arrest, however, we have no need to address the inventory-search issue. See United States v. Patterson, 993 F.2d 121 (6th Cir.1993) (declining to determine whether the search of a motor vehicle was valid as an inventory search on the ground that the search was valid as a search incident to arrest).
19 We also note that Herndon submitted a supplemental brief during the week of oral argument, asserting that the sentence imposed by the district court under the Sentencing Guidelines is unconstitutional under Blakely v. Washington ___ U.S. ___, 124 S.Ct. 2531, 159 L.Ed.2d 403 (2004). The brief acknowledges that this court held in United States v. Koch, 383 F.3d 436 (6th Cir.2004) (en banc), that Blakely does not invalidate the Sentencing Guidelines, but explains that Herndon wishes to preserve the record with respect to his Blakely claims. Because Koch compels us to reject Herndon's Blakely claim, we have no need to further discuss this issue or to consider whether Herndon has properly preserved the argument.