In United States v. Mastin, No. 18-14241 (Aug. 26,
2020) (Grant, William Pryor, Antoon), the Court affirmed the defendant’s
felon in possession conviction.
The Court upheld the denial of a motion to suppress the gun. The gun fell out of the defendant’s waistband
after the police ordered him to get on the ground and crawl out of a hotel room
where the officers were executing arrest warrants on others. First, the Court explained that, based on the
totality of the circumstances, the officers could enter the hotel room to carry
out the arrest warrants because they had a reasonable belief that it was the
suspects’ dwelling and that one of them was there. Second, the Court rejected the defendant’s
argument that it was unreasonable to require him to crawl out of the room, because
officers may briefly detain those on the premises not only while they execute a
search warrant but also while they execute an arrest warrant. In so holding, the Court extended the Supreme
Court’s decision in Michigan v. Summers in a manner that the Ninth
Circuit had not.
The Court also rejected the defendant’s argument that he was
deprived of a fair trial because the court limited his right to cross examine a
police witness and develop his defense theory.
The Court found no abuse of discretion because the questions he wanted
to ask would not have been probative of bias and would have confused the jury.
