Opinion ID: 152381
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Motion to Suppress and Constitutionality of Search

Text: Williams first argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence from the search of the vehicle in which he was a passenger because any alleged consent to search given by the driver of the vehicle was involuntary, or in the alternative, the police lacked probable cause for the warrantless arrest and subsequent search. As a result, Williams claims, his judgment of conviction must be vacated and the matter remanded for a new trial free from the tainted evidence. Because the search was lawful, however, we have no occasion to visit Williams's consent claim. In reviewing a denial of a motion to suppress, we review the district court's factual determinations for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo.  United States v. Parish, 606 F.3d 480, 486 (8th Cir.2010). Because this case proceeded to trial, we examine the entire record, not merely the evidence adduced at the suppression hearing, in considering the denial of [Williams's] motion to suppress. United States v. Inman, 558 F.3d 742, 745 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 130 S.Ct. 304, 175 L.Ed.2d 202 (2009). The existence of probable cause is a mixed question of law and fact that we review de novo.  Parish, 606 F.3d at 486. Searches conducted without a warrant are per se unreasonable, subject to a few well-established exceptions. United States v. Madrid, 152 F.3d 1034, 1037 (8th Cir.1998). One such exception is the automobile exception. The Supreme Court has held that circumstances unique to the vehicle context justify a search incident to a lawful arrest when it is `reasonable to believe evidence relevant to the crime of arrest might be found in the vehicle.' Arizona v. Gant, ___ U.S. ___, 129 S.Ct. 1710, 1719, 173 L.Ed.2d 485 (2009) (quoting Thornton v. United States, 541 U.S. 615, 632, 124 S.Ct. 2127, 158 L.Ed.2d 905 (2004) (Scalia, J., concurring in judgment)); United States v. Winters, 600 F.3d 963, 968 (8th Cir.2010). [T]he offense of arrest will supply a basis for searching the passenger compartment of an arrestee's vehicle and any containers therein. Id. The government bears the burden of establishing that an exception to the warrant requirement applies. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 455, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971). Given the above, our first inquiry is whether the police had probable cause to arrest Williams. `Probable cause to make a warrantless arrest exists when, considering all the circumstances, police have trustworthy information that would lead a prudent person to believe that the suspect has committed or is committing a crime.' Parish, 606 F.3d at 486 (quoting United States v. Velazquez-Rivera, 366 F.3d 661, 664 (8th Cir.2004)). Here, the officers had probable cause to arrest Williams. Williams argues that a lack of probable cause to arrest him is demonstrated by the failure of any mention of Williams during the months of wiretap surveillance leading up to the events on October 21, 2007. But, the fact that Williams's name had not yet been specifically mentioned to-date in the investigation is not dispositive. Nor is the fact that the officers did not know Williams at the time they stopped the vehicle, which Williams intimates on appeal. Probable cause does not require certainty regarding Williams's identity. Cf. United States v. Muhammad, 604 F.3d 1022, 1027-28 (8th Cir.2010) (reiterating that absolute certainty is not required by probable cause in the similar context of the plain-view exception to the Fourth Amendment search and seizure requirements). At the time the officers witnessed Williams interacting with Johnson, they did not know his actual identity but he could certainly be reasonably identified by a prudent person as participating in a drug transaction and involved in the greater conspiracy at play. The officers had intercepted calls between Drones and Johnson, a supplier and suspected drug courier respectively, wherein Johnson discussed obtaining money from Drones to give to Drones's own supplier who was currently in St. Louis. And, officers observed Johnson leave Drones's residence with a white plastic shopping bag and observed Johnson conducting a transaction with a man later identified as Williams. Williams then tossed a similar-looking white plastic shopping bag into the back seat of the identified vehicle. Later that evening, after Johnson returned to the hotel to give what officers believed was more money to the supplier, and after receiving a warning call from Johnson regarding suspected police activity, Williams left the hotel and got on the interstate traveling in the same vehicle he was seen in earlier. Given these events, a prudent person, especially in light of the ongoing extensive investigation leading up to that day's events, would be led to believe the men traveling in the Toyota had committed or were committing a drug crime. The circumstances of the investigation, the physical surveillance and the intercepted wiretap calls revealed Williams's participation in the heroin conspiracy. Because the Toyota left the Adam's Mark after the day's transactions with Johnson, and in close temporal proximity to Johnson's phone conversation with Drones's supplier warning him of police activity, in addition to the surveillance of Williams tossing a white plastic shopping bag into the back seat of the Toyota after meeting with Johnson, the police had probable cause to believe that evidence relevant to the drug crime would be found in the vehicle. See Gant, 129 S.Ct. at 1719 (distinguishing Thornton, 541 U.S. at 618, 124 S.Ct. 2127 and New York v. Belton, 453 U.S. 454, 456, 101 S.Ct. 2860, 69 L.Ed.2d 768 (1981), where the defendants were arrested for drug offenses, from Gant, where the defendant was arrested for driving with a suspended license, an offense for which there is no reasonable basis to believe the vehicle contains relevant evidence). In short, these officers had probable cause to believe that contraband or other evidence of drug crimes would be found in the stopped vehicle. Thus the search was constitutionally reasonable and we affirm the district court's denial of Williams's motion to suppress. Because there was probable cause for the arrest and the search of the vehicle was not unreasonable, we need not determine whether the driver of the vehicle gave valid consent to search the vehicle.