U.S. v. Hammond

In prosecution on series of Hobbs Act robberies and weapons charges, Dist. Ct. did not err in denying defendant's motion to suppress historical and real-time cell site location information (CSLI) that law enforcement collected to locate defendant during his robbery spree and to confirm his location on days of said robberies. While obtaining such historical CSLI without warrant constituted unlawful search under Carpenter, 138 S.Ct. 2206, Dist. Ct. did not err in finding that police collected said data in good-faith reliance on section 2703(d) of Stored Communication Act, which permitted disclosure of said data based on police showing to phone company of relevancy of said data and was settled law at time police obtained said data. Also, police's collection of real-time CSLI was not search for 4^th Amendment purposes, where police sought to obtain defendant's already exposed location in public, and where police had probable cause to arrest defendant at time they sought said data. Moreover, record supported defendant's convictions for brandishing firearm during crime of violence under 18 USC section 924(c), where defendant's Hobbs Act robberies qualified as crimes of violence. Too, Dist. Ct. did not commit plain error in classifying him as career offender under section 4B1.1 of USSG, based in part on defendant's commission of instant Hobbs Act robbery offenses, even though Hobbs Act robbery offense did not qualify as crime of violence for purposes of section 4B1.2(a) of USSG, where: (1) Dist. Ct. indicated that instant 47-year collective sentence would have been imposed regardless of recommended Guideline range for armed career offender; and (2) record showed that sentence was calculated without aid of Guidelines, but rather was based on defendant's extensive criminal record and perception that defendant remained danger to community.