Court Opinion

ID: 9391582
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-05-02 18:00:31.18139+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:18:43.207232
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-30769         Document: 00516734381             Page: 1      Date Filed: 05/02/2023

              United States Court of Appeals
                   for the Fifth Circuit                                         United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                          Fifth Circuit

                                      ____________                                      FILED
                                                                                      May 2, 2023
                                        No. 21-30769                                  Lyle W. Cayce
                                      ____________                                         Clerk

   United States of America,

                                                                      Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                             versus

   Derrick Felton,

                                               Defendant—Appellant.
                      ______________________________

                      Appeal from the United States District Court
                         for the Western District of Louisiana
                                USDC No. 6:18-CR-185
                      ______________________________

   Before Elrod, Ho, and Wilson, Circuit Judges.
   Per Curiam: *
          Derrick Felton appeals the denial of his motion to suppress narcotics
   evidence. Felton and his co-defendant, Alfonzo Johnlouis, argued that this
   evidence had been seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment following an
   illegal search of a parcel by a United States Postal Service letter carrier.
          In co-defendant Johnlouis’s case, our court upheld the denial of the
   motion to suppress because we determined that the letter carrier was “not a

          _____________________
          *
              This opinion is not designated for publication. See 5th Cir. R. 47.5.
Case: 21-30769        Document: 00516734381             Page: 2      Date Filed: 05/02/2023

                                        No. 21-30769

   government actor to whom the Fourth Amendment applies.” United States
   v. Johnlouis, 44 F.4th 331, 337 (5th Cir. 2022), cert. denied, 143 S. Ct. 834
   (2023).
           We are bound by the determination in Johnlouis that the letter carrier
   was not acting as an agent of the government when she inspected the package
   at issue. 1   Thus, the district court did not err in finding that the letter
   carrier’s actions did not violate the Fourth Amendment. The judgment of
   the district court is AFFIRMED.

           _____________________
           1
             Felton and his co-defendant both abandoned the argument that the letter carrier
   was a private person acting in the capacity of a government agent.

                                              2