eBook details
- Title: United States v. Vickers
- Author : Sixth Circuit. United States Court Of Appeals
- Release Date : January 23, 1979
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
Defendant was convicted in District Court of possessing marijuana with intent to distribute it and of conspiring to do so. On appeal he argues that marijuana taken during a warrantless search of a locked footlocker should not have been admitted into evidence. We agree and reverse his conviction on the authority of United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S. Ct. 2476, 53 L. Ed. 2d 538 (1977). After receiving an informant's tip, officers of the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification and the Drug Enforcement Administration began surveillance of a parked tractor trailer, which, according to the informant, contained marijuana. As the informant predicted, the defendant approached the tractor trailer and proceeded, out of sight of the officers, to unload a footlocker from the truck and to place it in the trunk of his car. He drove away, followed by agents, and was stopped after driving a few miles. An agent took the key out of the ignition of defendant's car and opened the vehicle's trunk to look for a footlocker or like container in which, according to the informant, approximately 100 pounds of marijuana would be secreted. As expected, the trunk contained two locked footlockers. Officers opened the footlockers and discovered the marijuana. Defendant was then arrested. His pretrial motion to suppress was denied, and he was convicted.