United States v. Adkins , 100 F. App'x 159 ( 2004 )

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 03-4958
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff - Appellee,
versus
LANDO ADKINS,
Defendant - Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern
District of West Virginia, at Charleston. Charles H. Haden II,
District Judge. (CR-03-135)
Submitted: April 30, 2004 Decided: June 7, 2004
Before MICHAEL, GREGORY, and DUNCAN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.
Mary Lou Newberger, Federal Public Defender, Megan J. Schueler,
Assistant Federal Public Defender, Jonathan D. Byrne, Legal
Research and Writing Specialist, Charleston, West Virginia, for
Appellant. Kasey Warner, United States Attorney, Joshua C. Hanks,
Assistant United States Attorney, Charleston, West Virginia, for
Appellee.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.
See Local Rule 36(c).
PER CURIAM:
Lando Adkins was convicted of possession of a firearm by
a convicted felon, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) (2000). He appeals the
district court’s denial of his motion to suppress evidence acquired
in a warrantless search of the vehicle in which he was a passenger.
Finding no error, we affirm.
Adkins filed a motion to suppress the evidence discovered
in the vehicle in which he was passenger as illegally seized. He
asserted that the officer who stopped the car, West Virginia State
Police Senior Trooper Sean Eric Wolfe, lacked reasonable suspicion
of criminal activity to effectuate a stop. Adkins asserted
information Wolfe received from Chief Logan State Park Assistant
Superintendent David Darnell that someone in a blue or gray van
bearing license plate number 4EG634 was shooting at deer in the
park, in violation of state law, was based on anonymous tips and
did not bear sufficient indicia of reliability. The district court
held an evidentiary hearing at which Wolfe testified that, upon
responding to the call for emergency assistance, Darnell met
Trooper Wolfe at the entrance to the park and informed Wolfe that
Darnell had located deer carcasses. Darnell gave Wolfe a paper on
which Sheila Adkins, a campground assistant, had written the
license plate number of the vehicle. Trooper Wolfe then testified
that he entered the park and immediately spotted a van matching the
description given by Darnell and bearing the reported license
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plate. Trooper Wolfe initiated his lights and stopped the vehicle.
Adkins was in the front passenger seat and a twenty-two caliber
rifle was on the floorboards between the front seats. The district
court denied the motion to suppress, finding that Trooper Wolfe had
reasonable suspicion to stop the van.
Adkins asserts on appeal that the suppression motion was
improperly denied because the trooper lacked reasonable suspicion
to stop the van because the tips were anonymous, did not contain
predictive information, and indicated no threat of imminent mass
destruction justifying the search without additional investigation
by the trooper. This court reviews the factual findings underlying
the denial of a motion to suppress for clear error, while reviewing
the legal determinations de novo. United States v. Rusher, 966
F.2d 868, 873 (4th Cir. 1992). When a suppression motion has been
denied, the evidence is reviewed in the light most favorable to the
government. United States v. Seidman, 156 F.3d 542, 547 (4th Cir.
1998). Given the facts known to Trooper Wolfe at the time of the
stop, we find that reasonable suspicion existed that a crime was
committed, thus permitting the officer to properly stop the
implicated vehicle to investigate. See United States v. Hensley,
469 U.S. 221, 226 (1985).
Accordingly, the district court properly denied the
motion to suppress. We therefore affirm Adkins’ conviction and
sentence. We dispense with oral argument because the facts and
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legal contentions are adequately presented in the materials before
the court and argument would not aid in the decisional process.
AFFIRMED
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