Submitted: November 16, 2016
Appeal
from United States District Court for the Western District of
Missouri - Jefferson City
Before
RILEY, [1] Chief Judge, WOLLMAN and KELLY,
Circuit Judges.
RILEY,
Chief Judge.
William
Council pled guilty to being a felon in possession of a
firearm, see 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), after the
district court[2] denied his motion to suppress evidence.
Officers arrested Council without a warrant while he was
standing at the doorway of his camper. The officers then used
information gathered during that arrest to obtain a search
warrant, which allowed them to seize the evidence at issue.
On appeal, Council contends the arrest and ensuing search
violated his Fourth Amendment rights and the evidence should
have been excluded. We find no such constitutional violation,
and we affirm.
I.
BACKGROUND
On
August 23, 2013, the Callaway County (Arkansas) Sheriff's
Department received a call from Andrew Wright about an
alleged assault with a firearm. Dispatch relayed the report
to Deputy Kevin Foley shortly after 5:00 p.m. Deputy Foley
first contacted Wright, who recounted the incident. At about
9:00 that morning, Wright reportedly was driving with a
friend, Melanie Miller, when a multi-colored pickup truck
pulled in front of their vehicle and attempted to block the
road. The driver got out of the truck and pointed a
gun-described as a sawed-off shotgun with a handle wrapped in
black tape-at Wright and Miller. Wright managed to drive
around the truck and escape the situation without further
escalation. Deputy Foley then spoke to Miller, who
corroborated Wright's story and identified the other
driver as Council, a friend who desired a "more serious
relationship" with her. Deputy Foley and the Callaway
County Sheriff's Department were already familiar with
Council from previous criminal complaints made against him by
his neighbors, some of which involved violent behavior.
Deputy
Foley decided to contact Council at his residence, and
enlisted Deputy Kirk Blehm to accompany him. Neither officer
sought a warrant because it was not their intent to arrest
Council or search him or his residence. Their intent merely
was to speak with Council, and according to Deputy Blehm,
officers in Callaway County "don't usually apply for
an arrest warrant for somebody before [officers] talk to
them." When Deputies Foley and Blehm arrived at
Council's property shortly after 7:00 p.m. they noticed a
truck matching the description provided by Wright and Miller.
The officers also observed a shell camper sitting on a
different pickup truck about 25 to 30 yards from the road,
where they presumed Council lived.
Deputy
Foley approached the camper, while Deputy Blehm took a
position off to one side where he was mostly out of sight.
Deputy Foley knocked. Council asked who was there, and Deputy
Foley answered "the Sheriff's Department."
Deputy Foley could hear movement within the camper, but there
was no answer, so he knocked again. Again, Council asked who
was there. Deputy Foley responded louder this time and said
"Sheriff's department, come to the door."
Council opened the outward-swinging door dressed in only his
underwear. Behind Council was a blanket hanging from the
ceiling and obstructing the officers' view into the
camper. According to Deputy Foley, he explained the nature of
the Wright and Miller report and his investigation while
Council stood "right in the doorway." Council
vehemently denied any involvement, claiming he had been
sleeping at the time of the encounter. Upon hearing who had
made the accusation, Council called Miller a liar, cursed,
and said he would "beat her half to death" the next
time he saw her. Deputy Foley asked if he could search the
camper, but Council told the deputy to "get a
warrant."
It was
at this moment Deputy Foley decided to arrest Council. He
took Council's arm and ordered him to "[s]tep out of
the trailer." Council resisted and tried to retreat
behind the blanket while repeatedly saying "wait a
minute." Already hanging onto Council's arm and
believing Council had "immediate access" to a
shotgun, Deputy Foley crossed the threshold of the camper and
tore down the blanket to see what was behind Council. Deputy
Blehm rushed to assist Deputy Foley and together they were
able to remove Council from the camper. While Deputy Blehm
was helping pull Council into the open he was able to see
inside the trailer and noticed what appeared to be a
black-taped handle of a gun wedged between the bed and a
laundry basket in plain view.
As he
was being escorted to Deputy Foley's police cruiser,
Council asked if he could go back into his camper and get
dressed. Deputy Blehm rejected the request, but offered to
retrieve a pair of pants and boots for him. Council
consented. Deputy Blehm entered the camper, grabbed some
clothes, and confirmed the object he had seen was indeed a
shotgun with its handle wrapped in black tape. After learning
about the gun, Deputy Foley instructed Deputy Blehm to wait
at the camper while he went to book Council and procure a
search warrant. When Deputy Foley returned with a warrant the
officers searched the camper and recovered a sawed-off
shotgun loaded with one live round.
On July
30, 2014, a grand jury returned a two-count indictment
against Council: one count for being a felon in possession of
a firearm, see 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), and one
count for possessing an unregistered firearm, see 26
U.S.C. § 5861(d). Council thereafter filed a motion to
suppress, arguing the government's evidence was obtained
in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. Both sides
presented their arguments and evidence to the magistrate
judge at a hearing on December 1, 2014.[3] The magistrate
judge suggested the district court deny Council's
suppression motion because the "officers effected a
valid arrest" and "[t]he search that followed was
supported by a valid search warrant, " so "[t]he
evidence yielded from the execution of the search warrant was
not in violation of the defendant's constitutional
rights." The district court adopted the Report and
Recommendation. Council conditionally pled guilty to the
felon-in-possession count in exchange for the government
dropping the other firearm count. The district court
sentenced him to a prison term of 180 months. See 18
U.S.C. § 924(e)(1) (statutory minimum). Council retained
his right to challenge the evidentiary ruling, and now
appeals. See 28 U.S.C. § 1291 (appellate
jurisdiction).
II.
DISCUSSION
Under
the Fourth Amendment, "[t]he right of the people to be
secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
violated." Several easy-to-recite but sometimes
hard-to-apply rules define the scope of this protection and
are relevant here. "[T]he warrantless arrest of an
individual in a public place upon probable cause d[oes] not
violate the Fourth Amendment." United States v.
Santana, 427 U.S. 38, 42 (1976) (citing United
States v. Watson, 423 U.S. 411, 423 (1976)). Conversely,
"[i]t is a 'basic principle of Fourth Amendment
law' that searches and seizures inside a home without a
warrant are presumptively unreasonable." Payton v.
New York, 445 U.S. 573, 586 (1980) (quoting Coolidge
v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 477 (1971)). There are
exceptions that allow a warrantless entry into a person's
home, such as when officers have probable cause and exigent
...