United States v. Miller

54 F.4th 219

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff – Appellee,

v.Teresa MILLER, Defendant – Appellant.

No. 21-4086

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: October 28, 2022

Decided: November 29, 2022

ARGUED: Jenny R. Thoma, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellant. Zelda Elizabeth Wesley, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Hilary L. Godwin, Assistant Federal Public Defender, Katy J. Cimino, Assistant Federal Public Defender, OFFICE OF THE FEDERAL PUBLIC DEFENDER, Clarksburg, West Virginia, for Appellant. Randolph J. Bernard, Acting United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Wheeling, West Virginia, for Appellee.

Before GREGORY, Chief Judge, AGEE, and DIAZ, Circuit Judges.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, conviction and sentence vacated, and remanded by published opinion. Chief Judge Gregory wrote the opinion, in which Judge Agee and Judge Diaz joined.

GREGORY, Chief Judge:

Teresa Miller was indicted on one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). The firearms at issue were uncovered during a traffic stop. Miller was traveling in the backseat of a vehicle operated by Jessica Phillips when the vehicle was stopped by Officer Helms for having an inoperable taillight. After printing a warning citation for Phillips, Officer Helms used his canine to sniff around the vehicle, and then conducted a full search when the dog alerted, uncovering two firearms in Miller's backpack. The district court denied Miller's motion to suppress evidence of the firearms, concluding that Officer Helms had reasonable suspicion to extend the stop and conduct the search. Following a bench trial, Miller was convicted of one count of unlawfully possessing a firearm.

On appeal, Miller argues that the district court erred by (1) denying her motion to transfer the proceedings to another district pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 21(a) and (2) finding that Officer Helms had reasonable suspicion to extend the traffic stop.

We hold that (1) Miller's motion to transfer was appropriately denied and (2) Officer Helms lacked a reasonable, articulable factual basis for extending the traffic stop to conduct the dog sniff.¹ We therefore reverse the district court's order denying Miller's motion to suppress, vacate Miller's conviction and sentence, and remand to the district court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I.

On July 3, 2018, Officer Helms, who conducts surveillance with a canine, stopped a vehicle driven by Phillips for having an inoperable taillight. See Supplemental J.A. Volume I ("S.J.A. I"); see also J.A. 109.² Officer Helms's dashboard camera captured footage of the traffic stop. The footage begins roughly thirty-one seconds before Officer Helms turned on his lights to pull Phillips over. Supplemental J.A. Volume II ("S.J.A. II") at 00:00-00:31.³ When Officer Helms turned on his lights, Phillips's vehicle was essentially parallel with a turn lane that led to a well-lit parking lot. Id. at 00:31. Phillips hit her brakes just four seconds after Officer Helms's lights came on and activated her blinker three seconds after hitting her brakes. Id. at 00:35-00:38. Phillips came to a complete stop seventeen seconds after Officer Helms turned his lights on. Id. at 00:48.

After Phillips came to a stop, Officer Helms approached the driver's side of the vehicle. His body camera captured his exchange with Phillips. Shortly after Officer Helms approached Phillips's vehicle, she began searching for her license. S.J.A. I 00:00-00:30. While Officer Helms testified that Phillips's hands were shaking during the encounter, her hands did not appear to be shaking while she was handing Officer Helms her license or her insurance information. See id. at 00:28-00:32, 00:35-00:40; J.A. 117.⁴ The next time that Phillips's hands were in view, it still was not evident that she was shaking. Id. at 01:11-01:18, 01:25-01:32.

While Phillips was looking for the vehicle's registration card, she noted that the vehicle was not very organized and, as a result, she was struggling to locate the card. Id. at 00:45-01:35. Phillips stated that she had seen the registration card earlier that day because she used it at the Department of Motor Vehicles ("DMV"). Id. at 00:58-01:01. Officer Helms then asked Phillips if "everything [was] good with her license," to which she replied "yeah," and then noted that she had renewed her license at the DMV earlier that day and had to wait three hours to do so. Id. at 01:01-01:09. Officer Helms responded, "ah, that's always awesome." Id. at 01:08-01:11. While continuing to search for the registration card, Phillips continued the conversation, saying that "it took [her] three hours and twenty minutes to renew [her] license." Id. at 01:14-01:20. Officer Helms responded by laughing and saying, "that's always pleasant." Id. Expanding on her unpleasant DMV experience, Phillips stated that she had to supervise her three grandchildren while at the DMV. Id. at 01:21-01:25. Officer Helms then said, "if everything is good, I'm just going to cut you a warning." Id. at 01:34-01:37. Phillips thanked him. Id. at 01:38-01:40. Officer Helms returned to his car just one minute and fifty seconds after he initially approached Phillips's vehicle. Id. at 01:50.

When a backup officer arrived,⁵ Officer Helms told him that he was suspicious of the vehicle's occupants because Phillips was shaking and tapping on the car door. Id. at 07:15-07:50. At approximately the same time, Officer Helms printed Phillips's warning ticket. Id. at 07:15. Soon thereafter, Officer Helms approached Phillips's vehicle, asked Phillips to exit the vehicle, and told her he would be leading his canine around the vehicle to sniff for illegal drugs. Id. at 08:25. After the canine indicated that there were drugs in the vehicle, officers performed a full search. Id. at 12:00-12:15. During the search, they located two handguns in Miller's backpack. J.A. 127.

In July 2019, Miller was indicted in the Northern District of West Virginia for unlawfully possessing a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2). J.A. 15–16. Acting pro se , Miller filed a motion to transfer her case to another district because multiple civil suits she had previously filed in the Northern District of West Virginia—which named judges sitting in that district as defendants—had been transferred to the Southern District of West Virginia due to a conflict of interest. J.A. 17–19; see Miller v. Gaujot , No. 2:16-CV-50 (N.D.W. Va. Oct. 6, 2017); Miller v. Gaujot , No. 1:17-CV-128 (N.D.W. Va. Sep. 5, 2017). The district court denied the motion because defense counsel, who was appointed just two days after Miller filed the motion, refused to adopt it. J.A. 24–27.⁶

Miller later filed a motion to suppress evidence of the firearms, arguing that the extension of the stop to conduct the dog sniff violated the Fourth Amendment. J.A. 33–34. A magistrate judge recommended denying the motion. The district court adopted the majority of the magistrate judge's report and recommendation,⁷ including its ultimate recommendation to deny Miller's motion to suppress. J.A. 72–73. The district court held that the magistrate judge properly (1) considered Officer Helms's experience and training; (2) determined that Phillips was excessively nervous; and (3) concluded that Phillips was slow to pull over. J.A. 83–91.⁸

Regarding Phillips's alleged nervousness, the district court stated that while the body camera footage was not clear enough to see whether Phillips was shaking, she exhibited nervous behavior by sharing unnecessary details of her day, her nervousness did not subside after she was told she would receive a warning if her license was clean, and tapping her fingers on the car door constituted excessively nervous behavior. J.A. 86–88. Further, the district court noted that Phillips "was slow to pull over and passed at least one or two well-lit streets and parking lots in favor of a dimly-lit section of Route 7." J.A. 88–90. In considering whether Phillips was slow to stop, the district court found it significant that Phillips would have travelled roughly 100 yards if traveling at 35 miles per hour for six seconds. J.A. 90.⁹ Finally, the district court noted that Route 7 was a known drug corridor. J.A. 91. These factors, it concluded, were enough to establish reasonable suspicion for Officer Helms to extend the traffic stop. J.A. 92.

II.

We first address Miller's argument that the district court erred by refusing to transfer her case to another district. We conclude that the district court did not so err.

A.

We consider Miller's appeal from the district court's order denying her motion to transfer pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 21(a). Notably, the Government interprets Miller's motion to be for recusal rather than transfer. But regardless of whether Miller moved for transfer or recusal, we review for abuse of discretion. See Scott v. United States , 255 F.2d 18, 20 (4th Cir. 1958) ; United States v. Whorley , 550 F.3d 326, 339 (4th Cir. 2008).

B.

Miller filed a pro se motion to transfer under Rule 21(a), which states that "the court must transfer the proceeding against [the] defendant to another district if the court is satisfied that so great a prejudice against the defendant exists in the transferring district that the defendant cannot obtain a fair and impartial trial there." Fed. R. Crim. P. 21(a). Miller filed the motion just two days before being appointed counsel, and counsel subsequently refused to adopt the motion. J.A. 17–19, 46–26. The district court declined to consider the motion, reasoning that every circuit court to address the issue has held that a district court has no obligation to consider a pro se motion filed by a represented party. J.A. 24–25.

Miller argues that this case should have been transferred to the ...