United States v. Jenkins, No. 19-3023 (D.C. Cir. 2021)
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Appellant was charged with two counts of possession of a firearm by a felon, 18 U.S.C. 922(g), and one count of simple possession of a controlled substance, 21 U.S.C. 844(a). Appellant conditionally pleaded guilty to the firearms charges and preserved his ability to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress evidence.
The DC Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment, holding that appellant's motion to suppress was properly denied where the vehicles' in-tandem driving to and from the scene of a shooting is suggestive of a conspiracy to perpetrate the shooting, in a way that mere presence as a passenger during what might have been an outwardly lawful transaction is not. Furthermore, despite the passage of time, the evidence gathered by the police was sufficient to establish probable cause to search one of the vehicles when it was seized. Finally, the court held that, while it would have been better if the district court had expressly omitted the disputed sentencing points from its calculation of the criminal history score, the record is sufficiently clear that the points did not affect the sentence. Accordingly, the court affirmed appellant's conviction and sentence.
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