United States v. Galaviz, No. 07-2518 (6th Cir. 2011)
Annotate this CaseAfter accepting a conditional plea of guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm (18 U.S.C. 922), and being sentenced to 70 months imprisonment, the defendant challenged the court’s denial of a motion to suppress. The Sixth Circuit affirmed the conviction, but remanded for re-calculation of the criminal history category for sentencing. The officer had specific and articulable facts, under the totality of the circumstances, to justify stopping the defendant to investigate whether he committed a robbery. The court noted proximity in time and geography, the description of the car, and the defendant’s efforts to accelerate away from the police. Regardless of the justification for the stop, the gun was in plain sight of the officers who responded to a call for backup after the defendant ran into a building. The gun was on the floor of the vehicle, parked near the sidewalk, outside the cartilage of the house, and its incriminating nature was immediately apparent. In calculating the sentence, the court incorrectly considered incarceration pending a determination of whether the defendant violated parole on another offense.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.