United States v. Ball, No. 15-1491 (8th Cir. 2015)
Annotate this CaseDefendant plead guilty to a drug-related charge after the vehicle in which he was a passenger was stopped by the state police and an inventory search revealed a kilogram of cocaine inside the air filter box in the engine compartment. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's denial of his motion to suppress the evidence, as well as his sentence. The court affirmed the district court's denial of the motion to suppress the cocaine and his post arrest statements to the police where nothing in the record supports defendant's contention that the inventory search was pretextual. The officer's testimony supports a finding that it was standard department procedure for searching an engine compartment to open the air filter box. Further, the officer did not act in bad faith and the search of the car did not violate the Fourth Amendment.The court also concluded that the district court did not err in applying a four-level sentencing enhancement under U.S.S.G. 3B1.1(a) after finding that defendant "was an organizer or leader of a criminal activity that involved five or more participants or was otherwise extensive." The court affirmed the conviction and sentence.
Court Description: Murphy, Author, with Melloy and Smith, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. The arresting officer's inventory search was conducted in accordance with standard department procedures; opening the air cleaner in the engine compartment was a standard portion of this search procedure, and the search which found the cocaine in question was a proper inventory search and did not violate the Fourth Amendment; no error in applying a four-level enhancement under Guidelines Sec. 3B1.1(a) for leadership role in the offense.
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