United States v. Simmons
United States v. Simmons
Opinion of the Court
OPINION AND ORDER
I. INTRODUCTION
Following a bench trial on stipulated facts, defendant Robert Simmons was convicted of one count of being a convicted felon in possession of a weapon and ammunition. He was sentenced to a mandatory minimum term of 180 months in custody. On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed this Court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress certain statements, but reversed this Court’s denial of defendant’s motion to suppress the seizure of the gun and ammunition. The Second Circuit remanded the case for “further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
The Government asks the Court to resolve defendant’s motion to suppress on the grounds it raised in its initial opposition to said motion, which were not addressed by the Court, and on additional grounds now raised for the first time. The parties have made voluminous submissions in support of their respective positions.
In opposition to defendant’s motion, the Government initially argued that: defendant’s roommate consented to entry by the police into the apartment he shared with Simmons; the seized gun was in “plain view;” and the police were permitted to enter Simmons’ bedroom as part of a protective sweep, thereby triggering the so-called public safety exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement.
The parties agree that the Court should now decide the “plain view” question.
II. RELEVANT FACTS
On the night of November 10, 2008, the police entered Simmons’ apartment at the request of his roommate who had called the police and reported that there was a man with a gun at his apartment located at 920 Trinity Avenue.
III. DISCUSSION
A. Plain View
On appeal, the appellate court noted that “[t]he district court did not make a finding or credibility determination to resolve the conflicting assertions about whether the gun was in plain view.”
B. Implied Consent
“There is no Fourth Amendment violation where an individual voluntarily consents to a search.”
[Defendant’s] statements constituted implied consent to the officer’s entering his bedroom and securing the gun. Informing the police of the precise but concealed location of the gun — under papers and on a particular chair — had no purpose other than to facilitate the immediate seizure of the weapon. Certainly, [defendant] was not simply being helpful to the officers in any putative obtaining of a warrant .... [A] defendant’s directions to a firearm amounts to, or may be found to amount to, implied consent, at least for the limited purpose of retrieving thé gun.20
It is noteworthy that Simmons volunteered the location of the gun without being asked. The question he was asked was “Do you have a gun in this apartment.” His response was, “Yes, I do, in my room .... It is in the room on the chair by my bed under the papers.”
In the majority opinion, Judge Barring-ton Parker addressed the issue of implied consent in a footnote. He began by noting that consent to a search must be voluntary and that the Government has the burden of proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that Simmons voluntarily consented to the search. In making this determination, the district court must consider the totality of the circumstances. Judge Parker then noted that this Court did not make a finding on this issue. He then stated, “I do not believe the record can support a finding of express or implied consent.”
C. Inevitable Discovery
Under the inevitable discovery doctrine, “evidence that was illegally obtained will not be suppressed ‘if the [G]overnment can prove that the evidence would have been obtained inevitably’ if there had been no statutory or constitutional violation.”
The question here is whether the police would inevitably have found Simmons’ gun had they not entered his bedroom before obtaining a warrant.
IY. CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, defendant’s motion to suppress the gun and ammunition seized from his bedroom is again denied. As a result, the Court’s guilty verdict stands. The Clerk of the Court is directed to close this motion (Docket Entry # 7).
SO ORDERED.
. United States v. Simmons, 661 F.3d 151, 159 (2d Cir. 2011). The Court’s Mandate, issued on December 12, 2011, uses slightly different language: "the order of the District Court is AFFIRMED in part, REVERSED in part, and REMANDED in accordance with the opinion of this Court.”
. See Memorandum of the United States of America on Remand ("Gov’t Mem.”) (docket # 45); Brief for Defendant Robert Simmons on Remand (docket # 48); Reply Memorandum of the United States of America on Remand (docket #49). See also 1/11/12 Letter from Richard B. Lind, defendant’s counsel, to the Court; 1/17/12 Letter from Assistant United States Attorney Michael D. Maimin to the Court; 1/18/12 Letter from Lind to the Court.
. "Where the public safely exception applies, a defendant’s statement — and the physical evidence recovered as a result of that statement — may be admitted into evidence at trial.” United States v. Estrada, 430 F.3d 606, 610 (2d Cir. 2005) (citing New York v. Quarles, 467 U.S. 649, 657-60 & n. 9, 104 S.Ct. 2626, 81 L.Ed.2d 550 (1984)).
. See 1/11/12 Lind Letter; 1/17/12 Maimin Letter.
. United States v. Rabb, 752 F.2d 1320, 1323 (9th Cir. 1984). Cf. In re Terrorist Bombings of U.S. Embassies in East Africa, 552 F.3d 177, 196-97 (2d Cir. 2008) (permitting courts to consider evidence on motion to suppress which the Government brought to its attention only after the close of the suppression hearing). I conclude that if the Court may consider new evidence it surely can consider a new legal theory based on the evidence that was before the Court at the time of the suppression hearing. Cf. Estrada, 430 F.3d at 609-10 (holding that the Court of Appeals "may affirm the denial of the suppression motion on any basis for which there is a record sufficient to permit conclusions of law, including grounds upon which the district court did not rely”) (quotation marks and citation omitted).
. See 4/14/09 Transcript of Suppression Hearing at 6-7, 54-55.
. See id. at 8, 55.
. See id. at 11-13, 57.
. See id. at 14-15, 57-58.
. See id. at 12, 14-15, 58-59
. See id. at 14-15, 60.
. See id. at 15-16, 47-48, 61,
. See id. at 17, 63.
. 9/18/09 Transcript of Suppression Hearing at 23-24.
. See id. at 28, 47.
. See id. at 18-19. In two prison conversations, Simmons claimed that the police officers could not see the gun because the bedroom was "dark” and the gun was blocked by a "plastic nightstand.” Id. at 44-45, 82-83.
. Simmons, 661 F.3d at 154 n. 1.
. See Minnesota v. Dickerson, 508 U.S. 366, 375, 113 S.Ct. 2130, 124 L.Ed.2d 334 (1993) ("Under [the plain view] doctrine, if police are lawfully in a position from which they view an object, if its incriminating nature is immediately apparent, and if the officers have a lawful right of access to the object, they may seize it without a warrant.”) (citing Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 136-37, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990) and Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 739, 103 S.Ct. 1535, 75 L.Ed.2d 502 (1983)). See also United States v. Scopo, 19 F.3d 777, 782 (2d Cir. 1994) ("The 'plain view’ exception to the [F]ourth [A]mendment warrant requirement 'authorizes seizure of illegal or evidentiary items visible to a police officer whose access to the object has some prior Fourth Amendment justification and who has probable cause to suspect that the item is connected with criminal activity.' ”) (quoting Illinois v. Andreas, 463 U.S. 765, 771, 103 S.Ct. 3319, 77 L.Ed.2d 1003 (1983)).
. Simmons, 661 F.3d at 159 (Winter, J., dissenting) (citation and footnote omitted).
. Id. at 161 (citing United States v. Reynolds, 646 F.3d 63 (1st Cir. 2011) (footnote omitted)).
. 9/18/09 Tr. at 23-24.
. Id. at 158.
. United States v. Roberts, 852 F.2d 671, 675-76 (2d Cir. 1988) (quoting Nix v. Williams, 467 U.S. 431, 447, 104 S.Ct. 2501, 81 L.Ed.2d 377 (1984)). Accord United States v. Heath, 455 F.3d 52, 55 (2d Cir. 2006) ("Would the disputed evidence inevitably have been found through legal means ‘but for' the constitution violation? If the answer is ‘yes,’ the evidence seized will not be exclud
. Heath, 455 F.3d at 60.
. See Gov’t Mem. at 39.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Robert SIMMONS
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- 3 cases
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- Published