Court Opinion

ID: 9892960
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-25 17:01:02.513614+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:50:54.145921
License: Public Domain

USCA11 Case: 22-12948    Document: 40-1      Date Filed: 10/25/2023   Page: 1 of 10

                                                    [DO NOT PUBLISH]
                                    In the
                 United States Court of Appeals
                         For the Eleventh Circuit

                           ____________________

                                 No. 22-12948
                           Non-Argument Calendar
                           ____________________

        UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
                                                       Plaintiﬀ-Appellee,
        versus
        CLEMMIE LEE SPENCER,

                                                    Defendant-Appellant.

                           ____________________

                  Appeal from the United States District Court
                     for the Northern District of Alabama
                   D.C. Docket No. 7:20-cr-00034-LSC-JHE-1
                           ____________________
USCA11 Case: 22-12948      Document: 40-1      Date Filed: 10/25/2023      Page: 2 of 10

        2                      Opinion of the Court                  22-12948

        Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, and JORDAN and BRANCH, Cir-
        cuit Judges.
        PER CURIAM:
               Clemmie Spencer appeals his convictions following his pleas
        of guilty to possessing with intent to distribute cocaine base and
        marijuana, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a), 841(b)(1)(B), 841(b)(1)(D); pos-
        sessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime, 18
        U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A); and being a felon in possession of a firearm,
        id. 922(g)(1). He challenges the denials of his motions to suppress
        and to withdraw his guilty pleas. We affirm.
               On August 13, 2019, Officer Josh Senkbeil obtained a war-
        rant to search the house of Spencer’s girlfriend, Quinise Watkins,
        and execute a bond revocation warrant for Spencer’s person. Two
        days later, officers arrested Spencer at Watkins’s house.
                About an hour after Spencer’s arrest, Officer Senkbeil ap-
        plied for a second warrant to “search the [] property for [Spencer].”
        Officer Senkbeil attested that, while arresting Spencer in one of the
        bedrooms and conducting a protective sweep of the house, an of-
        ficer saw marijuana on the bedroom dresser in plain view. Another
        officer saw cocaine on the kitchen table, next to a power bill in
        Spencer’s name, and a firearm on top of the refrigerator in plain
        view. A state magistrate issued the second search warrant to search
        the house for evidence of “illegal narcotics distribution and traffick-
        ing.”
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        22-12948               Opinion of the Court                        3

                 After a federal grand jury indicted Spencer for possessing
        with intent to distribute cocaine base and marijuana, 21 U.S.C.
        §§ 841(a), 841(b)(1)(B), 841(b)(1)(D); possessing a firearm in fur-
        therance of a drug-trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A); and
        being a felon in possession of a firearm, id. 922(g)(1), Spencer
        moved to suppress the evidence seized from the house. He argued
        that, when officers executed a warrant to search the house for him,
        the officers then searched the house for evidence without a warrant
        to do so, and they exceeded the scope of a lawful protective sweep.
        At a hearing on the motion to suppress, the magistrate judge stated
        that he was “curious about what it is the defendant is challeng-
        ing. . . . Are you challenging the search warrant that was secured
        subsequent to what the government alleges was a protective
        sweep?” Spencer answered that, apart from being unable to ascer-
        tain the authenticity of signatures on the second search warrant,
        “No, Your Honor.” Spencer also referred to the second search war-
        rant as “properly obtained.”
               The magistrate judge issued a report and recommendation
        that Spencer’s motion to suppress be denied. The magistrate judge
        found that, regardless of Spencer’s standing to challenge the search,
        the officers conducted their protective sweep within two minutes
        while arresting Spencer, and the magistrate judge found that the
        evidence was in plain view.
              Spencer objected to the report and recommendation. He ar-
        gued that most of the items were not in plain view and that there
        was no reason to conduct a protective sweep when the officers
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        4                       Opinion of the Court                  22-12948

        quickly found Spencer in the house and Spencer told them that no
        one else was in the house. The district court overruled Spencer’s
        objections and adopted the report and recommendation.
                At trial, after the government presented its first witness,
        Spencer announced during a recess that he was “going to take a
        blind plea today.” The district court asked if he would like to wait,
        but Spencer said that he “would just rather get on out of []here and
        just take a blind plea.” The district court explained that it could not
        allow Spencer to plead guilty if he was being coerced, and Spencer
        replied, “It ain’t that . . . I am just ready to get it over with.” The
        district court asked Spencer whether he was guilty, and Spencer
        said he was not. After the district court stated it did not “take guilty
        pleas from people that say they aren’t guilty,” Spencer repeated
        three times that he was guilty. Spencer’s trial counsel, Henry
        Penick, stated that he approved of Spencer entering a guilty plea.
               The district court emphasized that Spencer should not
        “plead guilty because of anything other than the fact that [he was]
        guilty and [he] want[ed] to take whatever advantage [he] might get
        by pleading guilty.” Spencer stated that they could “keep trying”
        the case and mentioned that he was concerned that his conversa-
        tions with Penick were being recorded by the jail. The district court
        stated that it would ensure that Spencer and his counsel got to
        spend some “quality time together” in an interview room at the
        courthouse at the end of the day. The district court also instructed
        Penick to “talk some” with Spencer during the next recess. The
        government presented three more witnesses that day.
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        22-12948               Opinion of the Court                         5

               On the second day of trial, the government presented four
        witnesses before Spencer informed the district court that he
        wanted to plead guilty because he saw that he was not “going to
        win here.” He stated that no one had threatened him or did any-
        thing to make him enter a plea and that he was “signing the papers”
        because he was “done with this case.” The district court cautioned:
              The government has you charged with the drug
              charge having had a serious drug offense conviction
              within the past . . . . The minimum you could get for
              that would be ten years. And then pleading guilty to
              having a firearm in furtherance of that drug traffick-
              ing crime, you would . . . be facing at a minimum 15
              years in prison. . . . Most folks in your shoes would
              not say I want to plead guilty. . . . Before I would ac-
              cept a guilty plea, I would have to be convinced you
              are doing it because you really are guilty and you un-
              derstand that and you want to get on with it and plead
              guilty because you are guilty.

        Spencer stated that he still wanted to plead guilty.
               The district court began the plea colloquy, but Spencer in-
        terrupted that he wanted to “reserve [his] rights.” The district court
        explained that, because there was no plea agreement, Spencer re-
        tained his right to appeal the rulings of the district court and his
        sentence. The district court confirmed that Spencer understood
        that he was facing a minimum sentence of 15 years of imprison-
        ment. The district court also confirmed that Spencer understood
        his right to continue with the trial and to have a
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        6                      Opinion of the Court                  22-12948

        constitutionally-adequate attorney. The district court explained
        that, if he pleaded guilty, “there is not going to be any more trial.”
        It explained, “It’s not like you are going to plead guilty, me send
        the jury home, and all of a sudden you change your mind. If you
        plead guilty and I accept it, then that’s the end of it. You won’t have
        a trial.”
               Spencer confirmed he understood, no one had threatened or
        coerced him to plead guilty, and he was pleading guilty because he
        was guilty. Penick stated he knew of no reason why the district
        court should not accept Spencer’s plea. Spencer pleaded guilty to
        all charges. The district court found that Spencer entered his pleas
        knowingly and voluntarily and accepted his guilty pleas.
                Three months later, Spencer, through counsel, moved to
        withdraw his guilty pleas based on insufficient evidence linking the
        items seized at Watkins’s house to him. He also filed a pro se motion
        alleging ineffective assistance of counsel because Penick, who was
        Spencer’s fifth attorney, failed to file various motions in limine and
        was unprepared for trial. After Penick moved to withdraw as coun-
        sel, Spencer filed three pro se motions to withdraw his guilty plea:
        the first motion asserted that he had sued the officers; the second
        asserted that Penick was ineffective and that Spencer was coerced
        into pleading guilty; and the third asserted that his pleas were not
        knowing or voluntary because he was mentally ill and could not
        understand the nature of the charges and that the jail administra-
        tors pressured him to plead guilty by denying him the opportunity
        to meet with Penick.
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        22-12948               Opinion of the Court                          7

               The district court granted Penick’s motion to withdraw, and
        it appointed new counsel. The district court also granted Spencer’s
        counseled motion for a competency hearing.
               At sentencing, the district court considered the forensic re-
        port regarding Spencer’s competency evaluation and ruled that he
        was fully competent. Spencer argued that Penick told him to plead
        guilty and to then withdraw his pleas to “reset the clock.” He testi-
        fied that he could not recall being advised of the range of punish-
        ment, but when presented with the transcript where he confirmed
        that he understood the range, he stated that he was incompetent
        and had listened to Penick. Penick testified that he never told Spen-
        cer he would be able to withdraw his guilty pleas and that he be-
        lieved Spencer “knew what he was doing” by pleading guilty.
               The district court denied Spencer’s motions to withdraw his
        guilty pleas. The district court explained that it was clear that Spen-
        cer “knew exactly what he was doing,” understood his rights, and
        was angry that his trial was not going the way he wanted it to go.
        The district court read an excerpt from the transcript from the first
        day of trial when Spencer announced that he wanted to plead guilty
        because he was guilty. The district court ruled that Spencer know-
        ingly and voluntarily pleaded guilty:
               [Spencer] is just a manipulator is what he is. And he
               has gone through his life manipulating others around
               him. And he seems to think he can get his way, what-
               ever he does. . . .
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        8                       Opinion of the Court                   22-12948

               I have tried to be fair and I’ll continue trying to be fair
               to him. But he understood what he was doing. It was
               a knowing and voluntary act, him pleading guilty. He
               understood his rights. He understood his range of
               punishment. He elected to plead guilty. I actually ad-
               vised him not to plead guilty. And he still pled guilty.

        The district court then sentenced Spencer to 25 years of imprison-
        ment followed by 15 years of supervised release.
                Two standards of review govern this appeal. In reviewing
        the denial of a motion to suppress, we review findings of fact for
        clear error and the application of law to those facts de novo. United
        States v. Barsoum, 763 F.3d 1321, 1328 (11th Cir. 2014). We review
        the denial of a motion to withdraw a guilty plea for abuse of discre-
        tion. United States v. Brehm, 442 F.3d 1291, 1298 (11th Cir. 2006). We
        will not reverse unless that decision is “arbitrary and unreasona-
        ble.” Id. A defendant may withdraw his pleas of guilty before sen-
        tencing if he can “show a fair and just reason for requesting the
        withdrawal.” Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(d)(2)(B). “In determining whether
        the defendant has met this burden, the district court may consider
        the totality of the circumstances surrounding the plea.” United
        States v. Buckles, 843 F.2d 469, 471–72 (11th Cir. 1988).
               Spencer argues, for the first time on appeal, that the district
        court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the second
        search warrant exceeded what Officer Senkbeil requested in his ap-
        plication for it, which was to “search the [] property for [Spencer].”
        Spencer argues that the state magistrate corrected the
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        22-12948                Opinion of the Court                            9

        misstatement by authorizing officers to search for evidence of “il-
        legal narcotics distribution and trafficking” based on the contents
        of Officer Senkbeil’s affidavit.
                 The doctrine of invited error bars Spencer’s challenge to the
        validity of the second search warrant. See United States v. Love, 449
        F.3d 1154, 1157 (11th Cir. 2006) (“[A] party may not challenge as
        error a ruling or other trial proceeding invited by that party.”). The
        magistrate judge squarely asked Spencer if he was challenging “the
        search warrant that was secured subsequent to what the govern-
        ment alleges was a protective sweep.” Spencer said he was not and
        described the second search warrant as “properly obtained.” Be-
        cause Spencer induced the district court into making what he now
        contends is an error, we do not reach the merits of his argument.
        Id. But even if he did not invite the purported error, Spencer still
        waived his right to challenge the ruling by failing to object to the
        magistrate judge’s report and recommendation, which expressly
        stated that Spencer was not challenging the validity of the second
        search warrant except to the extent that it was derivative of the
        protective sweep. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 59(b) (“Fail[ing] to ob-
        ject . . . waives a party’s right to review.”); United States v. Holt, 777
        F.3d 1234, 1257–58 (11th Cir. 2015).
              Spencer argues that the district court erred in denying his
        motions to withdraw his guilty pleas. He contends that, because he
        was relying on Penick’s statement that he would be allowed to
        withdraw his guilty pleas, he should have been allowed to do so.
        We disagree.
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        10                     Opinion of the Court                 22-12948

                The district court did not err. Penick testified, and the dis-
        trict court found credible, that he never advised Spencer to enter
        pleas of guilty and withdraw them later. The determinations of
        whether to credit that testimony and what weight to give it rested
        with the district court. Buckles, 843 F.2d at 472.
                Spencer also argues that he was unable to discuss his deci-
        sion to plead guilty with Penick before the colloquy, but the record
        reveals several instances in which the district court ensured that
        time was available for Spencer to discuss with Penick whether to
        plead guilty, including during a recess on the first day of trial and
        in an interview room after adjourning that day. During his plea col-
        loquy, Spencer also confirmed that he had discussed his plea agree-
        ment with Penick and with several of his previous attorneys. After
        these opportunities to confer with counsel and after the govern-
        ment presented eight witnesses, Spencer persisted with his guilty
        plea. He raises no argument in his opening brief that his decision
        was not knowing and voluntary. See United States v. Campbell, 26
        F.4th 860, 873 (11th Cir. 2022) (en banc). Spencer failed to establish
        a “fair and just reason” for withdrawing his plea. Fed. R. Crim. P.
        11(b)(2)(B).
               We AFFIRM Spencer’s convictions and sentence.