United States v. Evans, No. 15-1827 (8th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CaseDefendant appealed his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm that was seized from his parked car without a warrant during a late night investigation of possible criminal activity. The court agreed with the district court that the officer had reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot when he pulled in behind the vehicle - parked in an abandoned carwash parking lot late at night with its lights on - to investigate what the car’s occupants might be doing in this high-crime area; when the officer saw defendant, a known felon, standing by another car in the dark carwash bay, he reasonably believed that he was in a dangerous situation; the officer's reasonable concern for safety justified his entering an open bay in an abandoned carwash to see whether other persons were hiding in a car where a dangerous suspect was seen engaging in suspicious activity; having justifiably entered the carwash bay, the officer's action in shining his flashlight to illuminate the interior of defendant's car did not violate the Fourth Amendment; and the marijuana and firearm were in plain view. Therefore, because there was no unlawful search and seizure of contraband seen in plain view in defendant's car, his contention that other evidence should be suppressed as fruit of the poisonous tree necessarily fails. The court also concluded that defendant's claim that the magistrate should have recused herself was not preserved for review. Finally, the court rejected defendant's jury challenge and affirmed the judgment in its entirety.
Court Description: Loken, Author, with Gruender and Kelly, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law. A police officer had reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot when he pulled behind a car parked in an abandoned car wash to investigate what the occupants were doing in the high crime area at that time of night; when the officer saw defendant, a known felon, standing next to another car in a car wash bay, the officer reasonably feared for his safety and had grounds to enter the car wash bay to see if anyone else was present and was justified in shining his light into the car parked in the bay; marijuana and a firearm in plain view in the car could be lawfully seized; defendant's claim the magistrate judge should have recused herself because of her prior employment as an Assistant U.S. Attorney was not preserved for review as it was not appealed to the district court; an AUSA without any involvement in the case brought by other attorneys in her former office is not required to recuse; defendant presented no evidence that the absence of African-American jurors was due the systematic exclusion of the group in the jury selection process and his claim that he was denied his Sixth Amendment because of the all-white jury is rejected.
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