United States v. Turner

1

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. QUINN R. TURNER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 21-5373

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

July 12, 2022

NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION

ON APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY

Before: BATCHELDER, COLE, and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

COLE CIRCUIT JUDGE

After an unsuccessful motion to suppress, Quinn Turner was found guilty on all four counts of a second superseding indictment that charged him with, among other things, conspiring to distribute methamphetamine in the Eastern District of Kentucky and elsewhere. As a part of the conspiracy, the jury found that Turner coordinated with Laura West, Ashley Daugherty, Helen "Ann" Hardin, and Shiera Brown-at a minimum-to further his criminal enterprise. Relevantly testimony from Turner's coconspirators revealed that Turner sold roughly fourteen pounds of methamphetamine of unknown quality per month between June and October 2018. At sentencing, the district court determined that Turner's base offense level would be 36, based on the drug quantities seized from an October 3, 2018 search and Daugherty's trial testimony regarding the volume of methamphetamine Turner sold prior to his arrest. The district court also found that Turner was a "manager" of the conspiracy and applied a three-level enhancement for this role.

Turner appeals the district court's denial of his motion to suppress and renews his challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence used to convict him. Turner also challenges the district court's calculation of his base offense level and the application of the managerial-role enhancement to his sentence. Finding no error, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual Background

In early September 2018, a confidential informant ("CI") contacted Officer Anthony Jansen and informed him that the CI could obtain methamphetamine from a woman named Laura West. Jansen was an officer with the City of Covington's Police Department and was assigned to the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force. On October 2, 2018, the CI-at Jansen's direction- conducted a series of police-monitored phone calls with West to arrange a methamphetamine purchase. West agreed to deliver one pound of methamphetamine to the informant the following day in Verona, Kentucky.

After a series of delays, the transaction was set to occur the night of October 3, 2018. At or around 8:00 p.m., the CI again called West. The two agreed to meet in the parking lot of a Dollar General store. During these police-monitored calls, West implied that she would not be alone during the transaction. She often used "we" rather than "I" and warned that "[her] dude [didn't] want there to be any funny business." (Suppression Hr'g Tr., R. 43, PageID 110.) Jansen recalled that West said her dude "just want[ed] to be where" the transaction occurred. (Id.)

While West was en route, law enforcement officers made their own preparations. Police used multiple surveillance units to monitor the Dollar General parking lot. They also parked the CI's vehicle in the lot to make it appear as though the CI was there.

Just before West arrived, she called the CI and told the CI that she was in gray or black Nissan sedan that would be backing into a parking spot. Jansen relayed this information to the surveillance units. Shortly after, Michael Rowland, an officer stationed half a mile away, saw a dark-colored sedan exit the highway, pull into the Dollar General parking lot, and back into a space. The Nissan was the only car in the lot that was backed into a parking space, and the only vehicle that matched the description given by West.

Turner was driving the Nissan. A woman named Shiera Brown was in the front passenger seat, while West was in the back seat. West was arrested on active arrest warrants she had from the state of Kentucky. Although neither Turner nor Brown had arrest warrants, both were handcuffed and detained. One officer searched Turner and removed a set of car keys from his pocket.

While the vehicle's occupants were detained, an officer released a drug-sniffing dog, which alerted to narcotics in the vehicle. The officer opened the car door, and while nothing was found on the driver's side of the car, the dog alerted to the presence of narcotics after smelling the area around the front passenger seat. Using one of the keys taken from Turner, an officer opened the locked glove compartment and found approximately a pound of methamphetamine and a firearm.

B. Procedural History

On December 12, 2018, Turner and West were indicted. Count One alleged that Turner and West conspired to distribute and possess controlled substances, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846, from September 1, 2018 until their subsequent arrest on October 3, 2018. The remaining three counts stemmed only from the October 3 arrest. Count Two alleged that Turner and West possessed methamphetamine with the intent to distribute, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and 18 U.S.C. § 2. Count Three alleged that Turner possessed a firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking crimes put forth in Counts One and Two, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A). Finally, Count Four alleged that Turner possessed the firearm after having been convicted of a felony offense, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1).

Turner pleaded not guilty to all charges. He then moved to suppress all evidence obtained from his October 3 arrest. The motion was denied.

While the motion was under consideration, West pleaded guilty. The Grand Jury returned a superseding indictment removing her name from Count One. Around the same time, the government's ongoing investigation revealed that Turner had allegedly trafficked methamphetamine for a longer period and with more people than just West. Specifically, Turner allegedly received assistance with his trafficking activities from Ashley Daugherty, who was not present on October 3. The Grand Jury subsequently returned a second superseding indictment, amending Count One to charge Turner and Daugherty with conspiring with other unnamed individuals to distribute methamphetamine beginning in June 2018.

Turner moved for a separate trial on the acts committed with Daugherty, which he asserted occurred in the Western District of Kentucky, and the acts committed with West, which he asserted occurred in the Eastern District. In Turner's view, the government's best evidence demonstrated only that these were two wholly unrelated conspiracies with a common defendant. The district court found that the government had proffered sufficient evidence to connect not only Turner to the individual co-defendants, but the co-defendants to each other, and subsequently denied his motion.

At trial, both Daugherty and West testified that they acted as intermediaries between Turner (the supplier) and their clients. West testified that Turner was one of two suppliers she used throughout September and October 2018. She was introduced to him by another person, for the sole purpose of obtaining methamphetamine. After their introduction, she procured methamphetamine from him ten times before they were arrested together. At one point, she predicted that they would develop "a great relationship." (Trial Tr., R. 293, PageID 1963.)

The government also presented evidence that Daugherty knew she was participating in a collective venture with Turner. Daugherty testified that she went with Turner to make sales, and knew he worked with other dealers, including West and a woman named Helen or Ann Hardin. Daugherty often went with Turner to Brown's home, where he kept drugs and at least one gun. West and Daugherty also testified that, on one occasion, Turner used Daugherty to supply drugs to West, rather than transferring them personally. This was Daugherty and West's only interaction.

Turner moved for judgment of acquittal under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 twice. Both motions were denied. After being specifically instructed on multiple conspiracies, the jury found Turner guilty on all counts.

At sentencing, Turner raised four objections, two of which are at issue on appeal. Relevantly, he argued that the calculated base offense level of 38 was incorrect. Turner asserted that any methamphetamine attributable to transactions other than the one orchestrated by West- such as those Daugherty testified to-was not established beyond a reasonable doubt at trial and therefore could not be used in his offense-level calculation. Turner also objected to the adjustment under U.S.S.G. § 3B.1.1(a) for organizing or leading a criminal activity involving five or more persons, as only West, Daugherty, and Turner were truly involved in the conspiracy, and he managed no one. Turner additionally filed a motion for a new trial.

The district court overruled in part and sustained in part Turner's objections and denied Turner's motion for a new trial. The court disagreed with Turner's argument regarding the amount of methamphetamine it could use in determining his base offense level for the same reason it denied Turner's initial motion to sever the trial-it found that all those transactions were part of the same course of conduct. But because there was a dearth of evidence regarding the purity of the methamphetamine involved in the transactions that occurred before October 3, 2018, the district court elected to treat those amounts as non-actual meth. With that calculation, the district court lowered the base offense level to 36.

Further the district court concluded that while there were five members of the conspiracy, Turner was only a manager or supervisor. Accordingly, the enhancement was reduced from four levels to three. The court sentenced Turner to 300 months in prison-240...