United States v. Randy Dabney, No. 21-2111 (8th Cir. 2022)
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Defendant conditionally pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and was sentenced to 360 months in prison. He appealed, arguing that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence, as well as his request for leave to file a second suppression motion out of time. He also argued that his sentence is procedurally and substantively unreasonable.
The Eighth Circuit affirmed, holding that the relevant search was legal, and the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying Defendant’s leave to file a second, untimely suppression motion. The court explained that the officer had a reasonable suspicion that Defendant was armed and dangerous, and he never exceeded the lawful scope of his Terry frisk of Defendant’s truck. Accordingly, the district court was correct to deny Defendant’s first suppression motion.
Further, even if the district court had erred, any error would have been harmless. The evidence from Defendant’s second traffic stop related to Counts 3–5 of the second superseding indictment—counts that were dropped as part of Defendant’s plea deal. So the evidence didn’t affect Defendant’s conviction. And since the exclusionary rule doesn’t apply at sentencing, United States v. Tauil-Hernandez, 88 F.3d 576, 581 (8th Cir. 1996), the district court was free to consider this evidence when imposing Defendant’s 360-month sentence.
Court Description: [Kobes, Author, with Colloton and Grasz, Circuit Judges] Criminal case - Criminal law and Sentencing. The police had reasonable suspicion to search defendant's truck for weapons based on the facts observed by the officer and defendant's known criminal history; a Terry frisk of a car is permissible even when the suspect is outside the car; the scope of the frisk was lawful as the hole in the door panel was large enough to hold a gun and could be searched; use of a flashlight to see inside the door panel was permissible in the search for a possible weapon; the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying defendant permission to file an untimely second suppression motion; in any event, the government dropped the counts that were covered by the proposed motion, and the evidence had no effect on defendant's sentencing; defendant's guilty plea included an appeal waiver covering sentencing issues, and the court dismisses his sentencing claim.
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