United States v. Airrington Sykes
Opinion
After the government indicted Airrington Sykes for being a felon in possession of a firearm,
see
On a December evening just shy of midnight, a police officer in Waterloo, Iowa, was dispatched to a 24-hour laundromat where he met a woman in the parking lot who reported finding a loaded handgun magazine in a laundry basket. She explained that the only other people in the laundromat at the time she discovered the magazine were two men dressed in black. She stated she was unsure if they had anything to do with the magazine, but she noticed they had stood near her basket at one point. She said that the men were still in the laundromat, though other people had since arrived.
The officer entered the laundromat and began approaching the two men in question. His body camera shows that, when he entered the aisle where the men stood, one of the men, Sykes, turned and began walking away. The officer attempted to intercept Sykes at a back corner of the laundromat near an exit and a bathroom. The officer's body camera shows Sykes bypass the exit, enter the restroom, and close the door. Moments later the officer opened the restroom door and told Sykes to "give me one second" and that he needed "one second of [his] time." Sykes complied, and the officer grabbed Sykes's sleeve and guided him out of the restroom. He then patted Sykes for weapons and discovered a handgun in Sykes's pants pocket.
Sykes's primary argument on appeal is that the officer lacked a reasonable suspicion that Sykes was committing a crime. The government disagrees, responding that
We recently decided a case that presented this very issue.
See
United States v. Pope
,
Sykes also argues that the officer lacked a reasonable suspicion that he even possessed a gun. We disagree. It is true that this case is unlike Pope , where an officer saw the suspect conceal a weapon in his pants. But here we have a report from a known person with whom the officer had an extensive discussion and who asserted that she found a loaded handgun magazine of unknown origins; and she identified the only two people who had access to the location where the magazine was found.
We think it reasonable to suspect that a person with loaded handgun magazines may have a handgun since, without the handgun, the magazines are of little use. We also believe it was reasonable to suspect that Sykes or his companion had a concealed gun, as opposed to a gun openly carried, since the woman who found the magazine never reported that she actually saw a gun in Sykes's or his companion's possession. And the officers who approached Sykes never testified to seeing a gun being openly displayed, either through the windows of the laundromat or during their approach of Sykes.
See
United States v. Polite
,
We want to emphasize that we give no weight to the fact that Sykes turned and walked away from the officers as they approached him. Though a person's unprovoked "flight" from police may be considered in the reasonable-suspicion calculus, a person's decision during a consensual police encounter "to ignore the police and go about his business" cannot.
See
Illinois v. Wardlow
,
Sykes suggests that the officer did not have reasonable suspicion at that point because he had no reason to suspect that Sykes, as opposed to the other person present, was engaged in criminal activity, and the Fourth Amendment requires "a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity."
See
United States v. Cortez
,
For stop-and-frisk purposes, however, the Fourth Amendment does not require that an officer must suspect only one person to the exclusion of all others. "[T]he simultaneous stopping of multiple 'suspects' for a one-person crime may sometimes be justified by the virtual certainty that the perpetrator is a member of that group and that means of singling him out will soon be available." 4 Wayne R. LaFave, Search & Seizure: A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 9.5(b) (5th ed. Oct. 2018). The Third Circuit's decision in
United States v. Ramos
nicely illustrates this principle.
We conclude that it would likewise have been reasonable here for the officer to suspect that Sykes, his companion, or both were carrying a concealed firearm, so we detect no constitutional violation. In the abstract, we recognize that as the number of suspects to be stopped increases, it will be less likely that suspicion will be sufficiently particularized to meet constitutional standards. Various considerations will
bear on whether a given search is particularized enough in the circumstances. The key, as is typical in the Fourth Amendment context, is reasonableness,
see
Cty. of L.A. v. Mendez
, --- U.S. ----,
Sykes also maintains that, even if the officer had reasonable suspicion to stop him, he lacked reasonable suspicion to frisk him. An officer may frisk a suspect whom he has lawfully stopped if he believes the suspect is "armed and dangerous."
Terry v. Ohio
,
We also note that Sykes appears to raise a Second Amendment challenge to § 724.4(1) in his reply brief. Because he failed to raise the argument in his opening brief, we decline to address it. See id. at 417.
We turn now to Sykes's sentence. Under USSG § 2K2.1(a), the base offense level of a person convicted of being a felon in possession of a firearm increases if he has previously been convicted of a crime of violence. A "crime of violence" is defined, in relevant part, as a federal or state offense that "has as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another." USSG § 4B1.2(a)(1). Sykes argues that the district court erred when it deemed his prior Illinois conviction for aggravated vehicular hijacking a crime of violence.
See
USSG § 2K2.1(a)(4)(A). We review de novo the district court's designation of a prior conviction as a crime of violence.
United States v. Williams
,
Sykes was convicted of aggravated vehicular hijacking because, while armed with a firearm, he "knowingly t[ook] a motor vehicle from the person or the immediate presence of another by the use of force or by threatening the imminent use of force." 720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/18-3(a), -4(a)(4). Though the definition of this crime explicitly requires the actual or threatened use of force, Sykes maintains that the crime still does not have "as an element the use, attempted use, or threatened use of physical force against the person of another" because it does not require, as it must, "force capable of causing physical pain or injury."
See
Johnson v. United States
,
To make his point, Sykes invites us to consider Illinois robbery, which similarly requires the taking of property "by the use of force or by threatening the imminent use of force."
See
720 Ill. Comp. Stat. 5/18-1(a). Indeed, Illinois courts have explained that the robbery and vehicular-hijacking statutes are "so similar that vehicular hijacking could be fairly described, for all practical purposes, as robbery of a specific kind of property, a motor vehicle," and "[g]iven the similarity in language," Illinois courts have "analogized to the robbery statute when interpreting the vehicular hijacking statute."
People v. Jackson
,
The Supreme Court's recent decision in
Stokeling v. United States
, --- U.S. ----,
Illinois's definition of robbery fits the common-law mold. As in Florida, one commits robbery in Illinois when he uses force sufficient to overcome a victim's resistance, however slight.
See
Taylor
,
Sykes also points to a case called
In re Thomas T.
,
People v. Wooden
,
Affirmed.
The Honorable Linda R. Reade, United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa, adopting the report and recommendation of the Honorable C.J. Williams, then Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Iowa, now United States District Judge for the Northern District of Iowa.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee v. Airrington L. SYKES, Defendant - Appellant
- Cited By
- 12 cases
- Status
- Published