United States v. Farrington

42 F.4th 895

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee

v.Shaun Michael FARRINGTON, Defendant - Appellant

No. 21-2974

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 12, 2022

Filed: August 1, 2022

Torrie J. Schneider, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Davenport, IA, for Plaintiff - Appellee.

Elizabeth Ann Araguas, Charles D. Paul, Nidey & Erdahl, Cedar Rapids, IA, Shaun Michael Farrington, Federal Correctional Institution, Greenville, IL, for Defendant - Appellant.

Before COLLOTON, MELLOY, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

GRUENDER, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Shaun Michael Farrington of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. He appeals the district court's¹ denials of his motion to suppress evidence, his motion to strike a juror for cause, and his motion to admit a portion of a video recording. We affirm.

I.

In October 2019, Henry County Sheriff's Office Investigator Jesse Bell was surveilling a vehicle as part of a drug investigation. He watched Farrington and Stefani Goodwin leave a motel, approach the vehicle, and place several bags into the car. They entered the vehicle, and Farrington drove away. Because Farrington's driver's license was suspended, Investigator Bell asked Sergeant David Wall to conduct a traffic stop. Sergeant Wall stopped the vehicle at approximately 6:46 p.m., and his drug-detection dog, Uno, signaled that he had detected drugs. Sergeant Wall then searched the vehicle and discovered drug paraphernalia and four lockboxes. Farrington was arrested, the lockboxes were seized and transported to an evidence shed at the sheriff's office, and the vehicle was separately towed to the sheriff's office. Prior to 10:00 p.m., Sergeant Wall had Uno conduct a sniff test around the lockboxes, and Uno signaled that he detected drugs. The officers then obtained a search warrant for the lockboxes, and the search revealed methamphetamine. Sergeant Wall testified that the time between the sniff test at the sheriff's office and the issuance of the search warrant was about two hours.

Farrington was indicted for possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. He moved to suppress the evidence derived from the traffic stop, the seizure of the lockboxes, and the sniff test of the lockboxes. The district court denied the motion.

Farrington also brought a motion in limine to exclude a twelve-second excerpt of a jail video-call recording between Farrington and Goodwin that was recorded two months after Farrington's arrest. In the call, Farrington states: "I'm the fucking lawyer, you just remember that. ... There's a reason why the lockboxes were lockboxes." Farrington requested in the alternative that the district court admit a longer portion of the video call, about one and a half minutes in length, to provide context for the recorded statements under Federal Rule of Evidence 106. The district court admitted the twelve-second recording but denied Farrington's motion to admit the additional portion.

After jury selection but before trial commenced, a juror informed the district court that, upon reflection, she realized that she recognized the name of a Government witness, Detective Traishondus Bunch. Detective Bunch served as a Rule 404(b) witness at Farrington's trial, testifying that Farrington had engaged in drug-related activity in the past. The district court questioned the juror, and she explained that between three and four years ago, she had corresponded with Detective Bunch by email about drug activity occurring in the parking lot outside of her residence. She had emailed Detective Bunch about once or twice a week during a nine-month period, reporting her observations of drug activity. About three years before Farrington's trial, she moved away from the residence and had no further contact with Detective Bunch. The district court asked the juror if there was "anything about those experiences that causes you any concern in your own mind about your ability to be fair to both sides in this case?" The juror responded, "No, sir." The district court then asked, "Are you willing to wait and listen to Officer Bunch's testimony before deciding whether you believe it?" The juror answered, "Yes." The defense moved to strike the juror for cause, but the district court denied the motion.

Farrington was convicted on both counts. He appeals the district court's denials of his motion to suppress, his motion to strike the juror for cause, and his motion to admit an additional portion of the recording under Rule 106.

II.

Farrington argues his motion to suppress should have been granted because the seizure, hours-long detention, and "dog sniff search" of the lockboxes violated the Fourth Amendment. "On appeal from the denial of a motion to suppress, we review the district court's legal conclusions de novo and its factual findings for clear error." United States v. Slim , 34 F.4th 642, 646 (8th Cir. 2022) (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted).

"The Fourth Amendment proscribes all unreasonable searches and seizures," and warrantless searches are per se unreasonable unless they fall under an exception to the warrant requirement. United States v. Castellanos , 518 F.3d 965, 969 (8th Cir. 2008) (internal quotation marks omitted). The automobile exception permits warrantless searches of an automobile and seizures of contraband where there is "probable cause to believe that an automobile contains contraband." United States v. Evans , 830 F.3d 761, 767 (8th Cir. 2016). Such searches may lawfully reach "places in which there is probable cause to believe that [contraband] may be found," including containers discovered within the automobile. California v. Acevedo , 500 U.S. 565, 579-80, 111 S.Ct. 1982, 114 L.Ed.2d 619 (1991).

United States v. Johns controls this case. See 469 U.S. 478, 105 S.Ct. 881, 83 L.Ed.2d 890 (1985). In Johns , customs officers smelled marijuana coming from two trucks and observed suspicious packages through the windows. Id. at 480-81, 105 S.Ct. 881. The officers brought the trucks to a Drug Enforcement Administration ("DEA") facility, "placed the packages in a DEA warehouse rather than immediately opening them," and then DEA agents conducted a warrantless search of the packages "three days after they were removed" from the trucks. Id. at 481, 486, 105 S.Ct. 881. The Court upheld the three-day detention and the search, explaining that "[t]here is no requirement that the warrantless search of a vehicle"—including the containers found within it—"occur contemporaneously with [the vehicle's] lawful seizure." Id. at 484, 487-88, 105 S.Ct. 881. It rejected the position that "warrantless searches of containers" are permissible "only if the search occurs immediately as part of the vehicle inspection or soon thereafter." Id. at 484, 105 S.Ct. 881 (internal quotation marks omitted). Rather, "[i]nasmuch as the Government was entitled to seize the packages and could have searched them immediately without a warrant ... the warrantless search three days after the packages were placed in the DEA warehouse was reasonable ...." Id. at 487, 105 S.Ct. 881.

Substantially the same facts are present here, except that the delay was several hours—not three days—and the police obtained a warrant prior to opening and searching the lockboxes. Even if the second sniff test constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment, but see United States v. Pulido-Ayala , 892 F.3d 315, 318 (8th Cir. 2018) ("The use of [a] drug-sniffing dog on the exterior of a vehicle during a valid traffic stop is not a search and does not infringe upon any Fourth Amendment rights." (internal quotation marks and alteration omitted)); United States v. Burston , 806 F.3d 1123, 1128 (8th Cir. 2015) (recognizing that the "use of a drug-sniffing dog did not constitute a search subject to the Fourth Amendment because the sniff occurred in a common hallway and the police officers were lawfully present"), a warrantless search would have been permissible under Johns . See 469 U.S. at 487-88, 105 S.Ct. 881.

Farrington argues that the seizure and detention of the lockboxes was unreasonable under United States v. Place , 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983). But " Place had nothing to do with the automobile exception and is inapposite." See Acevedo , 500 U.S. at 578, 111 S.Ct. 1982 (noting that the Supreme Court has consistently "explained that automobile searches differ from other searches" and has denied the applicability of cases that "do not concern automobiles or the automobile exception" to cases involving the automobile exception). Therefore, the district court did not err in denying Farrington's motion to suppress.

III.

Farrington claims that the district court erred in denying his motion to strike the juror who had previously corresponded with Detective Bunch. We review the denial of a motion to strike a juror for cause for abuse of discretion. Moran v. Clarke , 443 F.3d 646, 650 (8th Cir. 2006). "Appellants must clear a high hurdle to obtain reversal ...." Id. "To challenge for cause, a party must show actual partiality growing out of the nature and circumstances of the particular case." United States v. Tibesar , 894 F.2d 317, 319 (8th Cir. 1990) (brackets omitted). "Essentially, ... a juror must profess his inability to be impartial and resist any attempt to rehabilitate his position" for a party to show actual partiality. Moran , 443 F.3d at 650-51.

Here, there was no abuse of discretion because the juror stated that she could remain fair and would listen to Detective Bunch's testimony before deciding if she believed it. See id. at 651 (holding that the district court did not abuse its discretion when it denied a motion to strike jurors who had "acknowledged difficulty being impartial" but "consistently stated that...