United States v. Burkley

Facts

An officer was responding to a disturbance call for an apartment complex when the officer saw the defendant turn into the apartment complex access road. He did not signal before turning onto the road, but used his turn signal while going around the curves of the road but not turning. The officer pulled of the defendant for not using his signal and then using it when he was not turning. Defendant rolled down his window, and the officer immediately noticed a strong smell of marijuana and residue on the defendant’s shirt. Defendant admitted that he did not have a driver’s license and he had been smoking marijuana earlier that night. The officer then placed the defendant under arrest.

Defendant, who was paralyzed from the waist down, informed the officers that he needed his wheelchair to exit the vehicle and that there were weapons in the car. The officers opened the backseat to get the wheelchair out and saw a .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun and a Carbon-15 handgun. Once in the wheelchair, defendant was patted down and two baggies of marijuana, a bottle of prescription medication, and $3,000 were found on the defendant’s person. Additional search of the vehicle found two cell phones, digital scale, a vacuum sealed bags containing cash, bottles of prescription medication, and ammunition. In total 157 grams of marijuana and $242,250 were found. Defendant admitted to having the guns for his own personal protection and that the marijuana was all his for medicinal use. He said the money belonged to somebody named Broadway for booking rap groups at a venue in town. He did not know Broadway’s last name or any information about him. Jury convicted him on all three counts.