United States v. Morley

99 F.4th 1328

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Derrick Alfondso MORLEY, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 22-12988

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit

Filed: April 30, 2024

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, D.C. Docket No. 1:21-cr-20519-DPG-2

Amanda Perwin, Lisa Tobin Rubio, U.S. Attorney Service - Southern District of Florida, U.S. Attorney Service - SFL, Miami, FL, Scott Dion, David Turken, DOJ-USAO, Southern District of Florida, Miami, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Benedict P. Kuehne, Kuehne Davis Law, PA, Miami, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Before Wilson, Luck, and Lagoa, Circuit Judges.

Lagoa, Circuit Judge:

A jury convicted Derrick Morley of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute five hundred grams or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, and possession with intent to distribute five hundred grams or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1). For each count, Morley was sentenced to a term of 60 months' imprisonment, to be served concurrently. Morley now appeals his convictions and sentence, arguing that: (1) the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence that was the fruit of an unlawful search; (2) the trial evidence was insufficient to support his convictions; (3) the district court erred in providing a deliberate ignorance jury instruction; and (4) the district court erred in denying him a safety valve sentence reduction under 18 U.S.C. § 3553(f). After carefully considering the parties' arguments and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm Morley's convictions and sentence.

I. FACTUAL & PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

We begin with the government's trial evidence as to two separate cocaine deals that led to Morley's arrest. The first deal took place on August 6, 2021, when Morley's associate and codefendant, Valentino Edgecombe, sold half a kilogram of cocaine to a paid FBI confidential informant ("Fred"). The FBI learned, in early August 2021, that Edgecombe, a Bahamian national, had been in South Florida "looking to try to get off some dope." Based on this information, Fred, at the FBI's direction, arranged to meet Edgecombe in the parking lot of a Miami shopping mall, outside of a Bass Pro Shops. With law enforcement officers surveilling, Fred bought half a kilogram of cocaine from Edgecombe for $14,000.

Following the first cocaine deal, Fred tried to negotiate a bigger deal for six kilograms of cocaine. On September 22, 2021, on a recorded phone call, Fred told Edgecombe that he had the money ready to buy more cocaine. About ten minutes later, on a second recorded phone call, Edgecombe offered to send Fred "straight to the person" with the cocaine. Edgecombe explained, however, that the person would only relinquish the cocaine if Edgecombe first cleared his debt, which he'd previously said he owed to "the guy who was holding the dope."

About an hour after the second recorded phone call, law enforcement observed Edgecombe meet up with Morley in the parking lot of a Fort Lauderdale hotel where Edgecombe was staying. Morley arrived in a maroon BMW, which law enforcement later confirmed that he owned. Morley parked near Edgecombe, entered Edgecombe's car, and they drove off together. Expecting a deal to occur, law enforcement tracked Edgecombe and Morley from the hotel, first to a car parts store and then to a Sam's Club. However, no deal took place that day.

Instead, the second deal happened six days later on September 28, 2021. The day prior, in a recorded phone call, Edgecombe again told Fred that he had to take him straight to his cocaine source to clear his debt and make the deal. Fred agreed to pay $28,000 per kilogram of cocaine, and the two decided they would meet up the next day and go together to the cocaine source. On the morning of the deal, Edgecombe sent a WhatsApp message to Fred indicating that he could sell him three kilograms of cocaine.

Later that evening, before meeting Edgecombe, Fred met with law enforcement to prepare for a "controlled evidence purchase arrest operation." Law enforcement gave Fred a hat equipped with a covert videorecording device and a backpack containing money for the deal. Law enforcement also told Fred to persuade Edgecombe to meet him in "a specific part" of a parking lot of a Home Depot rather than going with Edgecombe to his source.

Fred arrived at the Home Depot and, to coax Edgecombe into meeting him there, told Edgecombe that his car battery "was dead" and that his key "won't crank." Edgecombe ultimately agreed over the phone to meet Fred at the Home Depot to complete the deal. So, Fred sent a text message to Edgecombe with the address of the Home Depot.

Edgecombe arrived at the Home Depot at around 8:30 p.m. and parked his car next to Fred's car. Fred asked whether Edgecombe had the cocaine with him, and Edgecombe responded, "Yeah someone is right there" and promised "[i]t's coming." Edgecombe then tried to persuade Fred to get in the car with him, but Fred refused, stating "I can't get in the car with you. I got too much money. I don't got no gun." Fred told Edgecombe to "tell [his] peoples" he can only get in Edgecombe's car if he sees the cocaine first.

Minutes later, Morley arrived in his maroon BMW and "trolled through the parking lot." He parked his car, got out, and quickly walked toward a nearby Wendy's restaurant. Edgecombe instructed Fred to "[g]o get it" from Morley's passenger seat. Fred retrieved a "small briefcase" from Morley's car and brought it to his car, confirming that it contained three kilograms of cocaine.

In the meantime, Morley tried to enter the Wendy's, but the door was locked, so he paced back and forth outside. All the while, Morley kept looking back toward the Home Depot parking lot: "[H]e just kept looking over his shoulder and then he walked into . . . [t]he driveway area of Wendy's, and he just kind of lingered in the area kind of like looking at the BMW, just watching it." After several minutes, Morley walked across the street to help a family with a broken-down car.

After Fred gave Edgecombe $84,000 for the cocaine, law enforcement arrested Edgecombe. Law enforcement then arrested Morley across the street.

Incident to his arrest, agents seized Morley's cellphone, got a search warrant, and accessed his phone. The search revealed extensive communications between Morley and Edgecombe leading up to the second cocaine deal, as well as evidence that Morley had acted on that communication. For instance, Morley and Edgecombe called each other fifteen times on the night of September 28. Edgecombe also sent the address of the Home Depot to Morley in a text message, which came two minutes after Fred had sent the same address to Edgecombe. Data from Morley's phone showed that he looked up directions from his home in Fort Lauderdale to the Home Depot two minutes after Edgecombe had sent him the address.

Edgecombe and Morley had also communicated in the lead-up to the first cocaine deal. On August 3, 2021, Edgecombe texted Morley, "i want you ride with me to deal with something also make yourself available" and "whenever i call you i want ride with me." Then, on the day of the first deal, Edgecombe sent Morley a message with the address of the same Bass Pro Shops where Fred met Edgecombe.

A grand jury returned a three-count indictment charging Morley with conspiring to possess with intent to distribute five hundred grams or more of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (Count 1) and possessing with intent to distribute five hundred grams or more of cocaine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (Count 3).

Morley moved to suppress the cocaine that Fred, at Edgecombe's direction, took from Morley's vehicle without a warrant. The government opposed Morley's suppression motion. The government argued that the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement applied because there was a fair probability that Fred would find contraband in Morley's car. The government noted that Fred and Edgecombe "had negotiated an $84,000 drug deal, and Edgecombe—who had previously sold [Fred] half a kilogram of cocaine—told [Fred] where to find the drugs." Thus, the government concluded, Fred reasonably believed he would find drugs in Morley's car. In any event, the government added, the consent exception applied because Fred reasonably believed Edgecombe had the authority to direct him to search Morley's car. Morley argued that neither of the two relevant exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement applied to Fred's search of his car.

The district court held an evidentiary hearing at which Miami-Dade Detective and FBI Organized Crime Task Force Officer Wendell Johnson testified. After hearing the officer's testimony, the district court denied Morley's motion. First, the district court found that there was probable cause to believe Morley's car contained contraband or evidence of a crime because Edgecombe and Fred "picked specific remote locations" for their drug deals, and "it's really hard to believe that . . . [Morley] pulled up in close proximity" by happenstance. And second, the district court found that apparent authority existed under the circumstances because "the drugs were retrieved exactly where Mr. Edgecombe said that they would be."

Morley proceeded to a four-day jury trial. The government's proposed jury instructions included the pattern instruction on deliberate ignorance. At the charge conference, Morley objected to the government's proposed deliberate ignorance instruction. He contended that the record did not support the instruction because "[t]here ha[d] been no proof of any evidence in reference to fingerprints or . . . DNA" and "the testimony on exactly where the bag was located and how it was taken out of the car is extremely wishy-washy." In response, the government argued that deliberate ignorance was "an alternative proof," which was "consistent with the evidence that Edgecombe had...