United States Fourth Circuit

District court's conviction of defendant for various drug and firearm offenses is affirmed where: 1) the officer did not violate defendant's Fourth Amendment rights by requiring him to open his hands in the brief period before he attempted to arrest defendant, and thus the evidence concerning the gelcap that defendant threw during that period was not subject to suppression; 2) since the arrest did not violate the Fourth Amendment, the district court was correct in in allowing evidence of money found on defendant obtained as a result; 3) district court did not err in refusing to suppress evidence concerning the drugs, drug paraphernalia, and handgun discovered in the car; and 4) defendant's remaining claims of insufficient evidence to support his conviction and Sixth Amendment challenge to his sentence enhancement are rejected.

Appellate Information

• Decided 04/01/2010
• Published 04/01/2010

Judges

• Before WILKINSON and AGEE, Circuit Judges, and R. Bryan HARWELL, United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Sapna Mirchandani, Office of the Federal Public Defender, Greenbelt, Maryland, for Appellant.  Tonya Kelly Kowitz, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  James Wyda, Federal Public Defender, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellant.  Rod J. Rosenstein, United States Attorney, Jonathan Biran, Assistant United States Attorney, Office of the United States Attorney, Baltimore, Maryland, for Appellee.