United States v. Calvin Sims

MEMORANDUM

Calvin Sims appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress fruits of a stop, arrest, and search, following which he entered a conditional guilty plea to conspiracy and bank robbery. For the reasons below, we AFFIRM the district court’s denial.

The parties are familiar with the facts. Two men wearing black face masks robbed a bank on December 1, 2010. A witness observed the getaway van and its driver both before and after the robbery and gave responding officers the first four characters of the van’s license plate. After hearing the radio dispatch from responding officers, the arresting officer stopped the van and arrested the three occupants, one of whom was Sims. The officer saw a large mesh bag full of cash sitting on the front passenger seat of the vehicle, a piece of cloth that appeared to be a face mask on the front passenger floorboard, and torn money wraps and paperclips on the floor area behind the front seats. Later that day, crime scene personnel conducted an inventory of the van’s contents, recovering other items related to the bank robbery.

We review motions to suppress de novo and the trial court’s factual findings for clear error. United…