US v. Ira Taylor, No. 14-4176 (4th Cir. 2014)

Annotate this Case

Download PDF

UNPUBLISHED UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT No. 14-4176 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. IRA TAYLOR, Defendant - Appellant. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, at Baltimore. J. Frederick Motz, Senior District Judge. (1:13-cr-00078-JFM-1) Submitted: November 25, 2014 Decided: December 9, 2014 Before NIEMEYER, GREGORY, and AGEE, Circuit Judges. Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion. Craig M. Sandberg, MUSLIN & SANDBERG, Chicago, Illinois, for Appellant. Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, Scott A. Lemmon, Assistant United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee. Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. PER CURIAM: Ira Taylor was convicted, following a jury trial, of possessing a firearm after sustaining a felony conviction, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) (2012) (“Count One”); distribution of, and possession with intent to distribute, a quantity of marijuana, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) (2012) (“Count Two”); and possessing and brandishing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense (particularly, Count Two), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) (2012) (“Count Three”). The district court sentenced Taylor to 180 months’ imprisonment, consisting of ninety-six months on Counts One and Two (concurrent), and a consecutive eighty-four-month term of imprisonment on Count Three. Taylor timely noted this appeal. Taylor presents five issues in his opening brief and one issue in his reply brief. 1 As discussed in detail below, we reject these arguments and affirm the amended criminal judgment. 1 Specifically, in the reply brief, Taylor asserts a challenge to the computation of his Sentencing Guidelines range. We reject counsel’s contention that he preserved the propriety of the underlying Guidelines calculation by citing to Gall v. United States, 552 U.S. 38 (2007), in the opening brief. Accordingly, we conclude that Taylor has waived this argument by raising it for the first time in his reply brief. See Equal Rights Ctr. v. Niles Bolton Assocs., 602 F.3d 597, 604 n.4 (4th Cir. 2010); United States v. Brooks, 524 F.3d 549, 556 n.11 (4th Cir. 2008). 2 I. The record, taken in the light most favorable to the Government, see United States v. Washington, 743 F.3d 938, 940 (4th Cir. 2014), establishes the following facts. On November 13, 2012, George Spradlin, who was using his personal vehicle as an unauthorized taxi, drove two people to a residential neighborhood in Baltimore. Spradlin asked his passengers if they knew anyone from whom he could buy marijuana. One of the passengers indicated that Taylor, who was on the street, could sell Spradlin marijuana. Spradlin did not then know Taylor’s identity. Taylor with Spradlin, approached and gave Spradlin’s Spradlin a vehicle, small bag spoke of briefly marijuana. Before Spradlin paid for it, Taylor lifted up his shirt and displayed a firearm. Taylor removed the gun and demanded that Spradlin give him all of his money — $85 — as well as the marijuana he had just provided Spradlin. Taylor pointed the gun at Spradlin’s head, and Spradlin complied. order, Spradlin street. him. exited his car and began Also on Taylor’s to walk down the Spradlin repeatedly asked Taylor not to harm or kill At some point, Taylor discharged his firearm, but did not hit Spradlin. Immediately thereafter, an unmarked police car turned down the street. Spradlin flagged down the police car and told 3 the officers that Taylor had robbed him and tried to kill him. Spradlin identified Taylor, who was standing in the middle of the street, as the man who had robbed him. Taylor ran, and the officers gave chase. Within a few moments, one of the officers, Detective Steven Rosier, exited the car and pursued Taylor on foot. Riser, continued the pursuit in The other officer, Michael the car. While Taylor running, Riser saw a firearm in Taylor’s left hand. was Once they came together again, Riser warned Rosier that Taylor was armed. The against a directive row to capitulated. officers of put later shrubs. his found Taylor hands on Taylor lying initially his head, face resisted but he down Riser’s eventually Pursuant to a search incident to arrest, Riser seized two small baggies of a plant-like substance (which the parties later stipulated was marijuana); $85 in cash, balled up; and $19 in cash, folded neatly and placed along side Taylor’s identification card and credit cards. After Taylor was in custody, Spradlin again identified Taylor as the man who had robbed him and threatened him with a firearm. firearm Rosier later returned to search the shrubs and found a lying 10-15 feet from where Taylor was apprehended. There were four live rounds and one spent shell casing in the chamber. 4 II. Taylor moved to suppress all statements and admissions he purportedly made, the evidence seized by Riser and the firearm found by Rosier, and Spradlin’s identification of Taylor as his assailant. The district court denied the motions. Rosier, Riser, and Spradlin were among the witnesses that testified at trial. At the close of the Government’s evidence, defense counsel made a Fed. R. Crim. P. 29 motion for a judgment of acquittal, which the court denied. The jury convicted Taylor on the three charged counts and found, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Taylor had brandished a firearm during the course of the underlying drug trafficking crime. At sentencing, the district court varied downward from the advisory Guidelines range applicable to Counts One and Two and imposed a ninety-six-month sentence on these counts, to be followed by an eighty-four-month sentence on Count Three. III. Taylor first challenges the denial of his motions to suppress. We review factual findings underlying a district court’s denial of a motion to suppress for clear error and legal conclusions de novo. (4th Cir. 2011). United States v. Foster, 634 F.3d 243, 246 Because the district court denied the motions, we construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the 5 Government, the party prevailing below. United States v. Black, 707 F.3d 531, 534 (4th Cir. 2013). Taylor first contends that the district court should have suppressed arrest, but a Taylor statement does that not he purportedly identify when, statement was offered into evidence. if made on ever, his this Thus, any error in the pre-trial ruling is of no consequence. Taylor next challenges the denial of his motion to suppress the evidence seized pursuant to Taylor’s warrantless arrest. This evidence, which consisted of two small bags of marijuana and $85 in balled up cash, was discovered on Taylor’s person during the search incident to arrest conducted by Riser. The Supreme Court has long since approved such searches. See United States v. Robinson, 414 U.S. 218, 234-35 (1973) (holding that, upon lawful warrantless arrest, police may conduct a full search of an arrestee’s person and personal items in his possession and control, without any additional justification). A warrantless arrest is valid so long as “there is probable cause to believe that a criminal offense has been or is being committed.” Devenpeck v. Alford, 543 U.S. 146, 152 (2004). Our review of the hearing transcript reveals that the officers had ample cause to arrest Taylor, thus undermining Taylor’s claim that the seizure was unconstitutional. 6 Taylor also contests the suppress the recovered firearm. privacy interest ammunition) by he may it of his motion to However, Taylor abandoned any have discarding denial had in in the that firearm the Therefore, shrubs. (or the abandoned gun was not the fruit of a seizure, and need not have been excluded. California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 629 (1991); see United States v. Stevenson, 396 F.3d 538, 546 (4th Cir. 2005) interest becomes in (“When a person property, unreasonable, his and voluntarily subjective he is abandons his expectation precluded from privacy of privacy seeking to suppress evidence seized from it.”). Finally, Taylor challenges the court’s denial of his motion to suppress Spradlin’s identification of Taylor as the perpetrator. trial of “Due process principles prohibit the admission at an out-of-court identification obtained through procedures ‘so impermissibly suggestive as to give rise to a very substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification.’” United States v. Saunders, 501 F.3d 384, 389 (4th Cir. 2007) (quoting Simmons v. United States, 390 U.S. 377, 384 (1968)). But it is clear from the record that both times Spradlin identified Taylor as the person who robbed and threatened him were entirely statements from spontaneous, either unprompted Rosier or 7 by Riser. any questions Thus, the or court properly ruled that they were not the result of an impermissibly suggestive identification process. IV. Taylor next argues that the district court erred in denying his Rule 29 motion for a judgment of acquittal on Counts Two and Three. We review this ruling de novo. United States v. Hickman, 626 F.3d 756, 762 (4th Cir. 2010). “A to evidence defendant support challenging his conviction the sufficiency bears a heavy of the burden.” United States v. Beidler, 110 F.3d 1064, 1067 (4th Cir. 1997) (internal quotation marks omitted). The jury verdict must by sustained when “there is substantial evidence in the record, when viewed in the light most favorable to the government, to support the conviction.” United States v. Jaensch, 665 F.3d 83, 93 (4th Cir. 2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). In reviewing a case for substantial evidence, we evaluate “both circumstantial and direct evidence, and allow the government all reasonable inferences that could be drawn in its favor.” United States v. Harvey, 532 F.3d 326, 333 (4th Cir. 2008). We do not weigh the credibility of the evidence or resolve any conflicts in the evidence. 1067. rare Beidler, 110 F.3d at “Reversal for insufficient evidence is reserved for the case where the prosecution’s (internal quotation marks omitted). 8 failure is clear.” Id. Count Two charged Taylor with knowingly distributing, and possessing marijuana. with intent to distribute, a quantity of Taylor argues that, because he possessed only 1.18 grams of marijuana, there was no basis for the jury’s finding of an intent to distribute. We disagree. Although “[p]ossession of a small quantity of drugs by itself is an insufficient basis from which intent to distribute may be inferred[,]” United States v. Fisher, 912 F.2d 728, 730 (4th Cir. 1990), this fact did not stand alone. the (admittedly The Government’s evidence established that small) quantity of marijuana that Taylor possessed was individually packaged in a manner consistent with the street-level distribution of drugs, Taylor engaged with Spradlin in a manner consistent with selling drugs, and Taylor possessed a satisfied the distribute. loaded firearm. Government’s Taken burden together, to show these an facts intent to See United States v. Collins, 412 F.3d 515, 518-19 (4th Cir. 2005) (affirming conviction for possession with intent to distribute 2.59 grams of crack cocaine because, even in cases involving distribute relatively can be small drug inferred quantities, from the an totality intent to of the circumstances). Taylor next asserts that the Government’s evidence as to Count Three was legally insufficient. But Spradlin’s testimony established that (1) the men were engaged in a drug 9 trafficking offense in that Spradlin was attempting to purchase marijuana from Taylor; (2) prior to paying Taylor, but after Taylor gave the marijuana to Spradlin for his inspection, Taylor lifted his sweatshirt to display his firearm; and (3) Spradlin felt scared and intimidated. This testimony thus demonstrated that Taylor brandished his firearm in furtherance of the drug trafficking crime of distributing marijuana. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(4) (defining “brandish” as “to display all or part of the firearm, or otherwise make the presence of the firearm known to another person, in order to intimidate that person, regardless of whether the firearm is directly visible to that person”). We note, briefly, that the Sixth Circuit’s decision in United States v. Gibbs, 182 F.3d 408, 426 (6th Cir. 1999), does not command a different result. Unlike the defendant in Gibbs, who did not possess a firearm during either of the two actual drug sales he completed firearm with while the undercover engaged in agent, selling Taylor possessed the drugs to Spradlin. To be sure, the sale of marijuana was not consummated and quickly evolved into a robbery, but the jury could have reasonably concluded that, at the moment he initially displayed the firearm, Taylor “considered the firearm to be critical to his drug-trafficking activities, including the drug deal that he was conducting with [Spradlin] 10 that day.” United States v. Pineda, __ F.3d __, 2014 WL 5462658, at *3 (4th Cir. Oct. 29, 2014). Accordingly, we affirm the jury’s guilty verdict on Count Three. V. Taylor next maintains that his sentence is illegal in light of Alleyne v. United States, 133 S. Ct. 2151 (2013), and unduly excessive given the scope of his criminal conduct, in violation of implicated the here, Eighth because Amendment. the jury But made the Alleyne is not factual finding necessary to support the increased mandatory minimum. See 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A)(ii). Taylor’s Eighth Amendment claim fares no better. Eighth Amendment forbids cruel and unusual punishments The and implicitly requires that a criminal sentence be proportionate to the crime or crimes of conviction. 284 (1983). Solem v. Helm, 463 U.S. 277, As this court recently clarified, proportionality review is available for a term-of-years sentence. United States v. Cobler, 748 F.3d 570, 579 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, 135 S. Ct. 229 (2014). In analyzing a claim that a sentence violates the Eighth Amendment, we first decide whether a threshold comparison of the gravity of a defendant’s offenses and the severity of his sentence leads to the inference that his sentence is grossly disproportionate to his crimes. Id. at 579-80. 11 Taylor makes no effort to show that his sentence, which included a downward variance from the Guidelines range applicable to Counts One and Two, presents the “rare case” sufficient to raise an inference of gross disproportionality. Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 60 (2010) marks (internal quotation omitted). And Taylor’s recidivism, which was set forth in the presentence report and was a clear concern to the district court, undermines Taylor’s claim that the sentence is disproportionate. See Ewing v. California, 538 U.S. 11 (2003) (holding sentence of twenty-five years to life for theft of three golf clubs, valued at approximately $1200, was not violative of the Eighth Amendment, given defendant’s prior felony convictions). We thus reject Taylor’s Eighth Amendment argument. VI. We turn, finally, to Taylor’s claim that the district court should amounts to have an sua sponte dismissed unconstitutional Amendment right to bear arms. Count infringement One because on his it Second This argument is raised for the first time on appeal, and we conclude that Taylor cannot show any error, let alone plain error, see Fed. R. Crim. P. 52(b), in the district court’s failure to sua sponte dismiss Count One. This court has ruled constitutionally valid on its face.” 666 F.3d 313, 319 (4th Cir. 2012). 12 that “§ 922(g)(1) is United States v. Moore, But we left open the possibility that presumptively unconstitutional challenge. Id. if confronted lawful with measures a could proper be as-applied To rebut this presumption of lawfulness, Taylor “must show that his factual circumstances remove his challenge from the realm of ordinary challenges.” Id. Taylor alleges that he was not participating in any criminal conduct at the time of his arrest, but this contention, which is contrary to the jury’s factual findings, is simply inadequate to remove Taylor’s situation from the run-of-the-mill challenge to the constitutionality of § 922(g)(1). Further, a review of Taylor’s criminal history reveals that he “undoubtedly flunks the law-abiding citizen requirement” the Second Amendment, which the Supreme Court recognized in Heller. 2 Id. at 320 (internal quotation marks omitted). of Accordingly, we reject Taylor’s claim of error on this point. VII. For the foregoing criminal judgment. facts and materials legal before reasons, we affirm the amended We dispense with oral argument because the contentions are adequately this and argument court presented would not in the aid the decisional process. AFFIRMED 2 District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008). 13

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.