United States v. Lawrence, No. 13-3205 (7th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseIllinois parole agents and police officers conducted an unannounced parole compliance check at Lawrence’s residence. Lawrence’s fiancée, Williams, admitted them and motioned toward a first-floor bedroom. Agents saw Lawrence at the top of the stairs. Lawrence stated that his bedroom was the bedroom that Williams had identified. The agents checked the second-floor area and found a drawer on the hallway floor. They photographed the drawer as found, showing bags containing a white powdery substance (492 grams of a mixture containing cocaine) and currency ($1,564). Although the agents only had authorization to search areas under Lawrence’s control, they secured the second floor for their safety. Officers knocked on other doors and found cooperative residents. They did not find additional contraband, nor did they observe furniture missing a drawer. In Lawrence’s bedroom, officers found a nightstand missing a drawer, containing Lawrence's documents. The drawer found in the hall fit and matched. The closet contained clothing that fit Lawrence and a safe containing $14,364. In later testing, a certified drug-detecting dog, alerted to drugs on both the currency found in the drawer and that found in the safe. Convicted of knowingly possessing with intent to distribute cocaine (21 U.S.C. 841(a)(1)), Lawrence was sentenced to 262 months. The Eighth Circuit affirmed, rejecting arguments that the government failed to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, that the court improperly admitted dog-sniff evidence, that the jury instructions were misleading, and that the sentence was unreasonable.
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