PUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff-Appellant,
v. No. 08-5038
STEVE MAURICE COLEMAN,
Defendant-Appellee.
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of South Carolina, at Columbia.
Matthew J. Perry, Jr., Senior District Judge.
(3:08-cr-00478-MJP-1)
Argued: October 15, 2009
Decided: December 4, 2009
Before TRAXLER, Chief Judge, WILKINSON,
Circuit Judge, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.
Reversed and remanded by published opinion. Judge Wilkin-
son wrote the opinion, in which Chief Judge Traxler and
Senior Judge Hamilton joined.
COUNSEL
ARGUED: Thomas Ernest Booth, UNITED STATES
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Appel-
lant. David Truitt, SALLEY LAW FIRM, Lexington, South
2 UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN
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.
OPINION
WILKINSON, Circuit Judge:
This case involves the consensual search of a bedroom by
police and the seizure of a pistol resulting from the search. As
explained below, we reverse the district court’s grant of the
motion to suppress the pistol. The district court viewed the
evidence through the lens of its later significance, but we hold
that the officers acted reasonably in seizing it based on what
they knew at the time.
I.
Steve Coleman, a convicted felon, lived with his girlfriend,
Amy Broome, in her Batesburg, South Carolina home.
Around 10:00 p.m., on September 21, 2006, two men broke
into Broome’s garage, and hid there while Coleman was at a
store with a friend. Upon Coleman’s return, he asked Broome
to open the garage for him. When Broome reached into the
garage to push the opener button, she was attacked and forced
back into the house by the two men. Coleman entered the
garage through the opened door and saw Broome in the house
struggling with the men. One of the men was pointing a gun
at Broome’s face. Coleman entered the home, pulled the
assailants from Broome, and ordered her to run outside.
Broome ran out to Coleman’s friend and called 911.
Meanwhile, Coleman started to leave the kitchen to check
on Broome’s sleeping son but was shot in the chest and hand
by one of the intruders. His assailants then fled through the
UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN 3
front door and to this day have not been apprehended. Bleed-
ing, Coleman repaired to the master bedroom and retrieved a
9mm pistol from a night stand. In doing so, he left blood from
his wounds around the bedroom. Coleman took the gun and
went to the garage to make sure the intruders were gone.
Broome and Coleman’s friend entered the house, and Cole-
man gave Broome the gun and told her to "put it up." Broome
hid the gun under the mattress in the bedroom.
Because Broome’s home was some distance from a hospi-
tal, Coleman’s brother was called, and he took Coleman to
meet an ambulance. The Batesville police were the first to
arrive after Coleman left. Broome told them about the break-
in and Coleman’s shooting. Lexington County Sheriff officers
from the Major Crimes Unit arrived next. They asked Broome
to sign a consent form to allow them to search the house for
evidence, which she did. Broome then spoke to Detective
Michelle Horton and gave a statement but omitted any men-
tion of Coleman’s firearm.
The consent form gave officers the right "to conduct a com-
plete search of the premises and the property, including all
buildings and vehicles, both inside and outside." Additionally,
it granted the officers "permission to take from my premises
and property, any letters, papers, materials or any other prop-
erty or things which they desire as evidence for criminal pros-
ecution in the case or cases under investigation." Broome later
testified that she did not verbally limit the police officers’
search in any way. In fact, she gave them permission to search
"anywhere in the house." Similarly, she testified that she did
not verbally limit the search to any particular officers.
Sergeant Oscar McIntosh, the supervisor on the scene, and
Detective Laura Grimes-Gould, the crime scene investigator,
entered Broome’s home pursuant to the consent form. Ser-
geant McIntosh testified that they found a large pool of blood
on the kitchen floor, with trails of blood leading from there
through the living room and out the front door, through the
4 UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN
mud room and into the garage, and into the master bedroom.
McIntosh did not know at the time whose blood was on the
floor. The officers knew that Coleman had been taken to the
hospital with gunshot wounds, but McIntosh testified that
there also was a suggestion that an intruder may have been
shot.
McIntosh and Grimes-Gould followed the blood trail into
the master bedroom. The blood went around the bed and was
also on the bedspread. From the location of the blood on and
around the bed, McIntosh believed that "someone . . . put
something under there." Detective Grimes-Gould lifted the
mattress and found the gun hidden beneath it.
The next day, September 22, 2006, officers from the Lex-
ington County Sheriff’s Department interviewed Coleman and
Broome. Both admitted that Coleman grabbed the gun during
the course of the home invasion.
Coleman was indicted by a grand jury on May 22, 2008 for
being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 922(g)(1). Because of his prior convictions, the
charge carried a mandatory minimum of fifteen years’ impris-
onment. Coleman filed a motion to suppress all evidence
found in the search of his residence, which the district court
granted after an evidentiary hearing.
The district court emphasized that the gun turned out not to
have been used by the home invaders and that police came to
realize it was not evidence in the shooting of Coleman. Fur-
ther, the court believed there was no reason for the police to
search the master bedroom and that the search exceeded the
scope of Broome’s consent. The district court also suppressed
Coleman and Broome’s statements to police the day after the
incident as fruits of the purportedly unlawful search and sei-
zure. This appeal followed.
UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN 5
II.
In evaluating an appeal from a suppression order, we
review the district court’s factual findings for clear error and
its legal conclusions de novo. U.S. v. Moses, 540 F.3d 263,
268 (4th Cir. 2008); U.S. v. Kimbrough, 477 F.3d 144, 147
(4th Cir. 2007).
A.
Coleman first claims that the search of the master bedroom
was beyond the scope of the consent Broome gave to police.
He asserts that Broome only "authorized the police to search
the entire premises for any items relating to the crime against
Broome and Appellee that had recently occurred" and that the
search of the master bedroom was not related to that crime.
Br. of Appellee 10.
As courts have long recognized, "The touchstone of the
Fourth Amendment is reasonableness." Florida v. Jimeno,
500 U.S. 248, 250 (1991) (citing Katz v. U.S., 389 U.S. 347,
360 (1967)). Searches pursuant to consent are allowed
because "it is no doubt reasonable for the police to conduct a
search once they have been permitted to do so." Id. at 250-51
(citing Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 219 (1973)).
Of course, it would be patently unreasonable for police to
proceed to search a home pursuant to an involuntary consent.
But Coleman does not challenge the voluntariness of
Broome’s consent, nor could he. Viewed under the totality of
the circumstances, as required by Schneckloth v. Bustamonte,
412 U.S. 218, 227 (1973), Broome’s consent was voluntary.
In fact, it was in her interest to have officers search her house
for evidence that might lead to the apprehension of the men
who assaulted her and shot her boyfriend. In addition, the
consent form Broome signed stated, "Knowing of my lawful
right to refuse to consent to such a search, I willingly give my
permission." Such written consent to a search "supports a
6 UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN
finding that the consent was voluntary." See United States v.
Boone, 245 F.3d 352, 362 (4th Cir. 2001), and there is nothing
to suggest that any coercive tactics were employed here.
Where there is no question that consent was voluntary, the
real issue becomes the scope of the authorization given to the
officers. The Supreme Court has noted that "[t]he standard for
measuring the scope of a suspect’s consent under the Fourth
Amendment is that of ‘objective’ reasonableness – what
would the typical reasonable person have understood by the
exchange between the officer and the suspect?" Jimeno, 500
U.S. at 251 (citing cases); see also U.S. v. Smith, 395 F.3d
516, 519 (4th Cir. 2005).
In addition, contrary to the district court’s view, determina-
tions about the objective reasonableness of a search are made
as of the time when the search takes place, based on the infor-
mation available to officers at that time. U.S. v. Di Re, 332
U.S. 581, 595 (1948); cf. U.S. v. McCraw, 920 F.2d 224, 227
(4th Cir. 1990) (probable cause for arrest evaluated based on
facts and circumstances known at the time). Just as facts
uncovered at a later date cannot justify an unreasonable
search, so also they cannot undermine a reasonable one. Di
Re, 332 U.S. at 595; Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31
(1979) (search incident to arrest not invalid even though law
violated by arrestee was later held unconstitutional).
B.
Here, the officers reasonably interpreted the scope of
Broome’s consent to search. Most importantly, the language
of the consent form is quite broad, belying Coleman’s claim
that the search exceeded the scope authorized. The document
Broome signed gave permission "to conduct a complete
search of the premises and the property, including all build-
ings and vehicles, both inside and outside." (emphasis added).
Broome also testified at the suppression hearing that she gave
officers permission to search "anywhere in the house" and did
UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN 7
not verbally restrict the search in any way. Given the breadth
of this authorization, it is difficult to say that the police were
anything but reasonable.
"The scope of a warrantless, but consensual, search is gen-
erally defined by its expressed object," U.S. v. Marshall, 348
F.3d 281, 287 (1st Cir. 2003) (citing Jimeno, 500 U.S. at 251).
That legal limitation was satisfied here. The "expressed
object" of the search in the present case was evidence relating
to an assault and shooting, and blood trails that lead to fire-
arms are obvious examples of objects that are well within the
scope of a shooting investigation.
That having been said, the giver of consent, in this case
Broome, controls the scope of consent. It is perfectly within
a homeowner’s rights to give a limited consent to search. As
the Supreme Court has stated, an individual "may of course
delimit as he chooses the scope of the search to which he con-
sents." Jimeno, 500 U.S at 252. No such limits being imposed
here, however, there is no reason why we should invent them.
Again, it is not surprising that Broome gave such a broad con-
sent. It was in her interest to allow a wide search because her
home had been invaded, she had been assaulted, and her boy-
friend had been shot.
Not only was the bedroom within the scope of the consent
search, but the officers also would have been derelict in their
duty not to follow a blood trail from the kitchen. Far from not
being part of the crime scene, as Coleman argues, see Br. of
Appellee 15, nothing less than a trail of blood led to the mas-
ter bedroom from the kitchen where the shooting occurred.
Further, at the time of the search the officers had no way
of knowing whose blood trail they were following. They
knew that Coleman had been shot, but Sergeant McIntosh also
testified that there were reports that one of the intruders may
have been shot as well. At a minimum, the trail of blood was
likely to lead to evidence of some kind, even if nothing more
8 UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN
than physical corroboration of events as told by witnesses.
Furthermore, for all that the officers knew, the trail of blood
could have led directly to a suspect, or it could have led to
another victim in need of assistance. In short, there were any
number of reasons why officers, based on what they knew,
behaved reasonably by following the blood trail.
C.
For the same reasons, it was reasonable for Detective
Grimes-Gould to lift the mattress in the master bedroom
where the gun was found once the officers reached the end of
the blood trail. As already noted, Broome consented to a
"complete search" of her home, and Sergeant McIntosh
believed from the blood stains on the bed and floor that
"someone . . . put something under [the mattress]." It was rea-
sonable for officers investigating a shooting pursuant to a
complete consent to look under a mattress where it appeared
that a wounded individual may well have hidden something.
What exactly the mattress concealed, and what its signifi-
cance might be, was at the time uncertain. Things whose sig-
nificance is not clear at the outset may, in light of other
evidence, be very significant indeed. Conversely, evidence
that may seem significant at first may turn out not to be so.
To hold that lifting this mattress was unreasonable, however,
would be to halt an investigation in its tracks, indeed at the
very point when an objectively reasonable officer would sur-
mise that fruitful evidence might be forthcoming. The fact
that the gun the police found in the bedroom later turned out
to be unrelated to Coleman’s shooting is simply irrelevant to
the question of whether the officers acted reasonably at the
time. Judgments are best rendered by understanding circum-
stances confronting actors at the time that they act, see, e.g.,
U.S. v. Buckner, 473 F.3d 551, 555 (4th Cir. 2007); Altman
v. High Point, 330 F.3d 194, 206-07 (4th Cir. 2003), and
nothing in the Fourth Amendment departs from that sound
principle.
UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN 9
III.
Having established that the search was reasonable, we may
readily resolve the related issues of the seizure of Coleman’s
gun and the suppression of Coleman and Broome’s subse-
quent statements to police. With regard to the seizure,
Broome gave officers "permission to take . . . any letters,
papers, materials or any other property or things which they
desire as evidence for criminal prosecution in the case or
cases under investigation." Thus the issue becomes whether
the officers at the time reasonably believed the evidence
seized might be related to the crime. As the Supreme Court
explained in Warden v. Hayden, police must have "cause to
believe that the evidence sought will aid in a particular appre-
hension or conviction." 387 U.S. 294, 307 (1967).
It was entirely reasonable for the officers to believe the gun
would aid in their investigation. First, they were at the scene
to investigate a shooting, and pistols clearly relate to shoot-
ings. Second, it was objectively reasonable to seize a gun at
the end of a blood trail. Finally, the officers had no way of
knowing whether or not the pistol they found had been used
to shoot Coleman, an intruder, or someone else entirely. The
events of the evening were chaotic, to say the least, and it was
hardly incumbent on the officers to clear up the confusion on
the spot. Based on what the officers knew, the seizure of the
gun was plainly reasonable.
Both the search and the seizure being reasonable, Coleman
and Broome’s subsequent statements are not fruit of any poi-
sonous tree. See Wong Sun v. U.S., 371 U.S. 471 (1963). No
violation of the Fourth Amendment having occurred, admis-
sions regarding Coleman’s possession of the gun in response
to police questioning about it should not have been sup-
pressed.
10 UNITED STATES v. COLEMAN
IV.
While we note the irony of a shooting victim being arrested
while his assailants are never apprehended, that unfortunate
result does not change the proper outcome. Coleman was a
convicted felon and as such it was unlawful for him to "pos-
sess . . . any firearm or ammunition." 18 U.S.C. § 922(g). The
fact that other serious wrongdoers remain free does not
impeach the lawfulness of the officers’ conduct or bear upon
the resolution of Coleman’s legal claims. Because the officers
who searched Broome’s home acted in an objectively reason-
able manner, the district court’s suppression ruling must be
reversed, and the case remanded for further proceedings con-
sistent with this decision.*
REVERSED AND REMANDED
*Because we hold that the search and seizure were objectively reason-
able, we need not address the government’s alternative claim that the sei-
zure of the pistol was justified under the Fourth Amendment’s plain view
doctrine.