United States Fourth Circuit

In a prosecution of defendant for being a felon in possession of a firearm, arising from a consensual search of a bedroom by police and the seizure of a pistol resulting from the search while the police were investigating a break-in and shooting at defendant's residence, grant of defendant's motion to suppress the pistol is reversed as, although the district court viewed the evidence through the lens of its later significance, the officers acted reasonably in seizing it based on what they knew at the time.

Appellate Information

• Decided 12/04/2009
• Published 12/04/2009

Judges

• Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, WILKINSON, Circuit Judge, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Thomas Ernest Booth, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Appellant.  David Truitt, Salley Law Firm, Lexington, South Carolina, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  W. Walter Wilkins, III, United States Attorney, Robert C. Jendron, Jr., Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appellant.