United States v. Young

99 F.4th 1136

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Apache YOUNG, Defendant - Appellant.

No. 21-2066

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit

As corrected May 24, 2023

FILED May 24, 2023

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico (D.C. No. 1:17-CR-00694-JB-1)

Timothy C. Kingston of Tim Kingston LLC, Foley, Alabama, for Defendant - Appellant.

Emil J. Kiehne, Assistant United States Attorney (Fred J. Federici, United States Attorney, with him on the brief), Albuquerque, New Mexico, for Plaintiff - Appellee.

Before CARSON, EBEL, and ROSSMAN, Circuit Judges.

ROSSMAN, Circuit Judge.

After the government charged Mr. Apache Young with one count of violating the felon-in-possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), he moved to suppress the firearms seized from his truck during an encounter with law enforcement. Mr. Young argued, first, officers lacked reasonable suspicion to stop him, and second, even if he was justifiably detained, the scope of his detention was not reasonably related to the justification for the initial encounter. The district court rejected both arguments. Mr. Young now appeals the denial of his motion to suppress, reprising arguments he made in the district court. We discern no error in the district court's suppression ruling. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm.

I. BACKGROUND¹

A. Factual History

The West Mesa is an open space area west of Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to local law enforcement, the West Mesa is known for criminal activity, including drug distribution and abandoned stolen vehicles. On November 13, 2016, Officer Jason Harvey of the Albuquerque Police Open Space Division was on patrol in the West Mesa—an area he had experience patrolling since 2002. It was about sixty-degrees Fahrenheit that day. Around 2 P.M., Officer Harvey spotted a red pickup truck, parked about a half-mile away. The driver's side door was open. Officer Harvey saw no one near the truck. The scene roused Officer Harvey's curiosity. Based on his experience, when a car or truck is parked on the West Mesa with its doors open, the hood up, or the wheels off, these "are indicators that potentially [the vehicle is] stolen." Supp. App. at 56; App. vol. I at 145. Officer Harvey waited for his partner, Officer Pat Smith, to arrive before the two drove together towards the pickup truck.

When they were about 100 yards from the truck, Officer Harvey observed a man, later identified as Mr. Young, walk out of a nearby abandoned cattle water tank. Mr. Young was wearing pants, but no shirt, and he had blue tattoos on his torso. Officer Harvey also saw Mr. Young carrying what he believed was a handgun in a black holster. When Mr. Young reached the pickup, he placed the object on the left side of the truck bed and approached the officers.

Both officers walked toward Mr. Young, meeting him halfway between their respective vehicles. Officer Harvey asked Mr. Young what he was doing on the West Mesa and if there were "any guns or weapons we need to know about." Mr. Young responded, "No, sir."² App. vol. I at 148; Supp. App. at 71; Video 1 at 0:54-0:57. Officer Harvey then asked Mr. Young, "Do you have any weapons on you." App. vol. I at 148; Video 1 at 0:57-0:59. Mr. Young answered, "a pocketknife," which he retrieved from his pants. App. vol. I at 148; Video 1 at 0:59. Reaching for the pocketknife, Officer Harvey said, "Let me just hold on to that for a second while we check everything out" and told Mr. Young, "Just hang out tight right here, okay?" App. vol. I at 148; Video 1 at 1:00-1:07.

Officer Harvey walked to the pickup truck, leaving Mr. Young with Officer Smith. Officer Harvey first looked in the truck bed, which was full of an assortment of objects. He called in the license plate number on his radio and learned the truck was registered to Andy Baca.

Officer Harvey then walked to the cattle water tank "looking for anything that was not consistent with the rest of the surroundings." Supp. App. at 74. Inside the water tank, Officer Harvey observed "clear fluid," blood, and fecal matter. App. vol. I at 149.

After inspecting the water tank, Officer Harvey returned to the truck, where he spotted "the butt of the gun, the grip of it" in the truck bed. Id. At this point, Dispatch had confirmed the vehicle was not stolen. Although "it didn't look like any narcotics activity was occurring" Officer Harvey said he "needed to run the individual, just to make sure everything was good to go." Supp. App. at 78.

Officer Harvey then walked back to where Officer Smith was waiting with Mr. Young. Officer Smith asked for Mr. Young's full name, birthday, and Social Security number. When Officer Harvey asked who owned the truck, Mr. Young replied, "Andy Baca." App. vol. I at 149-50.

Officer Harvey returned to his squad car, while Officer Smith waited with Mr. Young. Officer Harvey first phoned his supervisor, Sergeant Jeremy Bassett.³ He described his encounter with Mr. Young and reported seeing a firearm in the truck bed. He also explained what he had seen in the water tank. Sergeant Bassett asked if Mr. Young was a felon, and Officer Harvey answered, "I'm going to guess he is. He's covered in tats like he is." App. vol. I at 150; Video 2 at 9:08-9:13.

Officer Harvey then radioed Dispatch to check for warrants on Mr. Young. Dispatch found no outstanding warrants but identified that Mr. Young was on "a discharge status under probation [or] parole."⁴ App. vol. I at 150; Video 2 at 18:03-18:18. Dispatch could not confirm the nature of Mr. Young's underlying offense. Officer Harvey called Sandra Perea at the Probation and Parole Division of the New Mexico Corrections Department; she confirmed Mr. Young had a prior felony conviction.

Officer Harvey then arrested Mr. Young. About 35-40 minutes had elapsed since law enforcement first stopped Mr. Young. Later, after obtaining a warrant, law enforcement searched Mr. Young's truck and found a rifle, shotgun, and ammunition, along with the handgun Officer Harvey had seen during the encounter.

B. Procedural History

In March 2017, the government charged Mr. Young in a single-count indictment with violating the felon-in-possession statute, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Mr. Young filed a motion to suppress contending law enforcement violated his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights during the encounter, and therefore, the firearms seized from his truck must be excluded "as the fruit of unconstitutional conduct." App. vol. I at 38.

Mr. Young made several arguments in his suppression motion but only two are relevant in this appeal.⁵ First, Mr. Young argued the officers illegally seized him without reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when they took his pocketknife and told him not to leave. Second, Mr. Young asserted the circumstances did not justify his continued detention.

In opposing the suppression motion, the government maintained Officer Harvey had reasonable suspicion to believe Mr. Young was engaged in criminal activity. Officer Harvey observed a truck with its door open on the West Mesa—a place known to law enforcement as a repository for stolen and abandoned vehicles. And when he first encountered Mr. Young, Officer Harvey watched him emerge shirtless from inside a water tank near the truck, holding what looked like a handgun in a holster. The government contended law enforcement detained Mr. Young no longer than necessary for Officer Harvey to investigate and learn Mr. Young was convicted of a felony. That information, along with the gun Officer Harvey had seen in the truck bed, provided probable cause to arrest.

In June 2018, the district court held an evidentiary hearing on Mr. Young's motion to suppress. Mr. Young testified he was on the West Mesa that day "picking up scrap metal, and just driving around." Supp. App. at 38. He also described his initial encounter with law enforcement. The prosecution then called Officer Harvey, who recited his experience patrolling the West Mesa and testified about the circumstances resulting in Mr. Young's arrest that day.⁶

In a written order, the district court denied the motion to suppress. The court first held Officer Harvey had reasonable suspicion to stop Mr. Young "because the circumstances' totality suggest[ed] that [Mr.] Young might be involved in a crime." App. vol. I at 184. The district court next concluded "the circumstances justif[ied] the length and manner" of detention.⁷ Id.

Mr. Young proceeded to jury trial in September 2018. The jury could not reach a verdict, and the district court declared a mistrial. In December 2018, the government prosecuted Mr. Young again for the same felon-in-possession offense, and the jury found him guilty. On June 11, 2021, the district court sentenced Mr. Young to 235 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release.⁸ This timely appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

Mr. Young argues the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the firearms found in his truck. We review a district court's denial of a motion to suppress by "view[ing] the evidence in the light most favorable to the determination of the district court." United States v. Johnson, 43 F.4th 1100, 1107 (10th Cir. 2022) (internal quotation marks omitted). We accept the district court's factual findings unless they are clearly erroneous, see United States v. Hammond, 890 F.3d 901 (10th Cir. 2018), and review legal conclusions de novo, United States v. Burleson, 657 F.3d 1040, 1044 (10th Cir. 2011). "While the existence of reasonable suspicion is a factual determination, the ultimate determination of the reasonableness of a search or seizure under the Fourth Amendment is a question of law reviewed de novo." United States v. Fonseca, 744 F.3d 674, 680 (10th Cir. 2014) (internal quotation marks and citations omitted).

Mr. Young urges reversible error on two grounds. First, he contends Officer Harvey did not have reasonable suspicion to initiate an investigatory stop. Second, even...