In United States v. Babcock, No. 17-13678 (Newsom,
W. Pryor, and Vratil), the Court affirmed the denial of a motion to suppress
and the defendant's child pornography sentence.
First, the Court rejected the government's argument that
officers were permitted to detain the defendant's cell phone under Terry
based on reasonable suspicion that he had committed a crime. The Court concluded that the detention of the
phone exceeded the scope of Terry because the officers had detained the
phone for two days, it constituted a significant intrusion into a possessory
interest, and the officers did not explain why they delayed for two days.
However, the Court concluded that, under the particular
facts of the case, the officers had probable cause to believe that the phone
contained evidence of a crime and that exigent circumstances—the need to
prevent him from deleting the evidence on the phone—allowed them to seize the
phone and then subsequently obtain a warrant before searching it.
The Court also affirmed the defendant's sentence. First, reviewing for plain error, the Court
rejected the defendant's argument that application of 2G2.1(b)(2) and 4B1.5(b)
was impermissible double counting.
Second, the Court found that the 324-month sentence, a downward variance,
was substantively reasonable.
