Michael Gordon Watson v. United States

USCA11 Case: 20-14698 Document: 52-1 Date Filed: 01/17/2023 Page: 1 of 7
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
In the
United States Court of Appeals
For the Eleventh Circuit
____________________
No. 20-14698
Non-Argument Calendar
____________________
MICHAEL GORDON WATSON,
Petitioner-Appellant,
versus
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Respondent-Appellee.
____________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
D.C. Docket Nos. 6:19-cv-01112-WWB-DCI,
6:17-cr-00283-RBD-DCI-1
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2 Opinion of the Court 20-14698
____________________
Before JILL PRYOR, BRANCH, and LUCK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Michael Watson appeals the district court’s denial of his 28
U.S.C. section 2255 motion which had collaterally attacked his
criminal sentence. Watson claimed that his trial counsel was inef-
fective because counsel didn’t raise a viable suppression issue re-
lated to the traffic stop that led to Watson’s arrest. We affirm.
I.
Watson pleaded guilty to possessing meth and marijuana
with the intent to distribute them and possessing a firearm in fur-
therance of the drug trafficking crime. He now contends his plea
was involuntary and unknowing because counsel failed to raise
with him or the district court that evidence from his traffic stop
may have been seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Wat-
son asserts there was no reasonable suspicion drugs were in his car,
and it was therefore unconstitutional for law enforcement to pro-
long his traffic stop for driving with a suspended license to wait for
a canine unit. The district court rejected these arguments and de-
nied the section 2255 motion without holding a hearing. It found
Watson’s ineffective assistance claim was barred by his guilty plea,
and, even if it hadn’t been barred, it failed on the merits.
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20-14698 Opinion of the Court 3
II.
When reviewing a district court’s order denying a section
2255 motion, we review legal conclusions de novo and factual find-
ings for clear error. Spencer v. United States, 773 F.3d 1132, 1137
(11th Cir. 2014) (en banc). Whether counsel was ineffective pre-
sents a mixed question of fact and law that is reviewed de novo.
Payne v. United States, 566 F.3d 1276, 1277 (11th Cir. 2009).
III.
We agree with the district court that Watson’s motion fails.
“A defendant who enters a plea of guilty waives all nonjurisdic-
tional challenges to the constitutionality of the conviction, and
only an attack on the voluntary and knowing nature of the plea can
be sustained.” Wilson v. United States, 962 F.2d 996, 997 (11th Cir.
1992). But a defendant doesn’t voluntarily and knowingly plead
guilty when his counsel rendered ineffective assistance. See Hill v.
Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 56–60 (1985). “[W]here a petitioner faults
his lawyer for failing to pursue a motion to suppress prior to enter-
ing a plea, both the deficient performance and prejudice prongs of
Strickland turn on the viability of the motion to suppress.” Arvelo
v. Sec’y, Fla. Dep’t of Corr., 788 F.3d 1345, 1348 (11th Cir. 2015);
see also Kimmelman v. Morrison, 477 U.S. 365, 375 (1986) (“Where
defense counsel’s failure to litigate a Fourth Amendment claim
competently is the principal allegation of ineffectiveness, the de-
fendant must . . . prove that his Fourth Amendment claim is meri-
torious . . . .”).
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4 Opinion of the Court 20-14698
The district court correctly concluded Watson’s Fourth
Amendment claim was not viable. Even accepting Watson’s fac-
tual description of the incident as true, the officer had reasonable
suspicion there were drugs in the car, justifying a prolonged stop.
First, after approaching Watson’s vehicle, the officer confirmed he
was driving with a suspended license. See United States v. Pruitt,
174 F.3d 1215, 1220 (11th Cir. 1999) (“A variety of factors may con-
tribute to the formation of an objectively reasonable suspicion of
illegal activity. . . . [A]mong those are driving with a suspended li-
cense.” (quotation omitted)). Second, the officer noticed Watson
appeared nervous. See Illinois v. Wardlow, 528 U.S. 119, 124 (2000)
(“[N]ervous, evasive behavior is a pertinent factor in determining
reasonable suspicion.”). Third, when asked if had past arrests, 1
Watson admitted he had previously been arrested for trafficking
methamphetamine. See United States v. Bishop, 940 F.3d 1242,
1249 n.4 (11th Cir. 2019) (although it carries less weight, “when
viewed in totality with the other relevant factors, knowledge of a
defendant’s criminal history” may contribute to reasonable suspi-
cion). Fourth, the officer noticed boxes of sandwich bags on the
1
In United States v. Campbell, we held that questions asked during a traffic
stop may be unlawful if they (1) are unrelated inquires aimed at investigating
other crimes, (2) add time to the stop , and (3) lack reasonable suspicion. 26
F.4th 860, 885 (11th Cir. 2022) (en banc), cert. denied, No. 21-1468, 2022 WL
4651666 (Oct. 3, 2022). Here, Watson’s arrest history was related to the traffic
stop’s purpose. It could shed insight on whether he had knowledge of his sus-
pended license. See Fla. Stat. § 322.34(3). And, if he drove with a suspended
license “knowingly,” greater penalties applied. Id. § 322.34 (1)–(2).
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20-14698 Opinion of the Court 5
car floorboard. See United States v. Mercer, 541 F.3d 1070, 1076
n.10 (11th Cir. 2008) (noting that an officer “testified that, based on
his experience, a large number of smaller baggies ‘usually means
that somebody is fixing to distribute [drugs] into smaller baggies to
make purchase of it, to make sales’”) (alteration in original));
United States v. Perry, 14 F.4th 1253, 1261, 1275 (11th Cir. 2021)
(characterizing “numerous boxes of sandwich baggies” as “drug
paraphernalia”).
Any of these four facts alone may not have amounted to rea-
sonable suspicion. See, e.g., Brent v. Ashley, 247 F.3d 1294, 1302
(11th Cir. 2001) (“[N]ervousness, standing alone, cannot provide
‘reasonable suspicion’ . . . .”). But that is not our analysis. “We may
not consider each fact only in isolation, and reasonable suspicion
may exist even if each fact ‘alone is susceptible of innocent expla-
nation.’” United States v. Bautista-Silva, 567 F.3d 1266, 1272 (11th
Cir. 2009) (quoting United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 277
(2002)). From the collective facts, “a trained officer draws infer-
ences and makes deductions—inferences and deductions that
might well elude an untrained person.” United States v. Cortez,
449 U.S. 411, 418 (1981).
The totality of the circumstances gave the officer “a minimal
level of objective justification”—in other words, reasonable suspi-
cion—to believe contraband was in the car and to prolong the stop
to await the arrival of a canine unit to investigate further. United
States v. Perkins, 348 F.3d 965, 970 (11th Cir. 2003). That the officer
may have finished issuing Watson’s ticket for driving with a
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6 Opinion of the Court 20-14698
suspended license before calling for the canine unit doesn’t render
the detention unconstitutional. See United States v. Hernandez,
418 F.3d 1206, 1212 n.7 (11th Cir. 2005) (underlining “that police
are not constitutionally required to move at top speed or as fast as
possible,” and ruling fifty-minute detention permissible where of-
ficer had to call for a canine unit). Nor does the fact that Watson
was placed in the back of the police car for forty-five minutes while
awaiting the unit’s arrival. See United States v. Gil, 204 F.3d 1347,
1350–51 (11th Cir. 2000) (upholding under Terry a seventy-five-mi-
nute, handcuffed detention in the back of a police car); United
States v. Street, 472 F.3d 1298, 1307 (11th Cir. 2006) (permitting
sixty-minute detention under Terry).
Even if the detention as a whole lasted longer than reasona-
ble for a suspended license traffic stop, the facts that arose during
the suspended license portion of the stop—confirmation of sus-
pended license driving, nervousness, a prior drug arrest, and boxes
of plastic baggies—established reasonable suspicion that an addi-
tional crime was being committed and justified prolonging the de-
tention to investigate. See Hernandez, 418 F.3d at 1206 (holding
that when officer conducting a traffic stop developed “reason to
suspect that he was not dealing with just a speeding case” he then
had “reason to detain [d]efendant longer than perhaps a traffic stop,
in itself, would allow”); see also Rodriguez v. United States, 575
U.S. 348, 355 (2015) (explaining that officers may prolong traffic
stops when they have reasonable suspicion).
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20-14698 Opinion of the Court 7
IV.
Because Watson’s Fourth Amendment claim was not viable,
his counsel’s failure to raise it with him and the district court didn’t
constitute ineffective assistance of counsel nor render his guilty
plea involuntary or unknowing. The district court properly denied
his section 2255 motion. 2
AFFIRMED.
2 Our certificate of appealability encompassed whether Watson was entitled
to an evidentiary hearing on his motion. He was not because his alleged facts,
even if true, conclusively showed he was not entitled to relief. See Aron v.
United States, 291 F.3d 708, 714–15 (11th Cir. 2002); Rosin v. United States,
786 F.3d 873, 877 (11th Cir. 2015) (“The district court is not required to grant
a petitioner an evidentiary hearing if the [section] 2255 motion and the files
and records of the case conclusively show that the prisoner is entitled to no
relief.” (quotation omitted)).