Kenric W. Young conditionally pleaded guilty to federal drug and firearm offenses following a traffic stop in a high-crime area of Shreveport, Louisiana. The incident began when officers observed Young failing to signal a left turn and subsequently fleeing the stop by driving for thirty-nine seconds before parking in a driveway. Upon exiting his vehicle, Young tossed his phone and raised his hands. Officers noticed a large bulge in his sweatshirt pocket and conducted a pat-down search, discovering marijuana, cash, and later, through a warrant, methamphetamine and a stolen firearm. Young was sentenced to 322 months based on a career offender enhancement derived from two prior Louisiana controlled substance convictions. On appeal, Young argued that the initial pat-down lacked reasonable suspicion and that his prior convictions did not qualify as predicate offenses under the Sentencing Guidelines, though he conceded he did not preserve these objections for appeal.
The court addressed two primary issues under the plain error standard. First, regarding the suppression motion, the court noted that when a district court's denial is based on live testimony, the clearly erroneous standard is particularly strong. The court applied the principles of Terry v. Ohio, emphasizing that reasonable suspicion is a low threshold based on commonsense judgments. The court found that the officers had reasonable suspicion to believe Young was armed and dangerous based on the totality of circumstances: the stop occurred in a high-crime area, Young fled the initial stop, he exited the vehicle without direction, and there was a passenger in the car. The court rejected Young's argument that a bulge in a sweatshirt pocket was too common to justify a search, stating that pockets can hold weapons and that the specific context justified the officers' caution. Second, regarding the career offender classification, the court applied the categorical approach. While Young argued that his prior Louisiana conviction was overbroad because it included a radioactive cocaine derivative (Ioflupane) not covered by the federal Controlled Substances Act, the court held that he failed to show a realistic probability that Louisiana would apply its statute to such conduct. Citing United States v. Castillo-Rivera, the court noted that Young could not point to any case where Louisiana prosecuted someone for distributing Ioflupane. The court also observed that even if there were disagreement among district courts regarding the interplay of recent Supreme Court cases, such disagreement meant any error was not clear or obvious.
The decision affirms the conviction and sentence, leaving Young in custody for the 322-month term. It reinforces the Fifth Circuit's application of the clearly erroneous standard in suppression cases involving live testimony and clarifies that defendants challenging career offender enhancements based on overbroad state statutes must demonstrate a realistic probability of state prosecution for the excluded conduct, not just a theoretical possibility. The ruling leaves open the question of how district courts should handle the interplay between United States v. Taylor and United States v. Castillo-Rivera in state statute cases, noting that existing disagreement among district courts prevents such issues from constituting clear error on appeal.
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