CA8: Man found in apartment during SW execution was unlike the bar patron in Ybarra

Officers found defendant in an apartment being searched under a search warrant, and they had probable cause as to him on the premises. This was unlike the unwitting bar patron in Ybarra. A patdown of defendant produced car keys, and keys were subject to the warrant. It was immediately apparent what they were by feel, unlike Dickerson. United States v. Cowan, 674 F.3d 947 (8th Cir. 2012):

Cowan’s presence in Booth’s apartment, unlike the patron in the public tavern in Ybarra and more like the passenger in the private car in Pringle or the hotel room occupant in Romero, could lead a reasonable officer “to infer [Cowan was part of] a common enterprise” among the people in the apartment. Pringle, 540 U.S. at 373. Although an apartment “is a larger and more multipurpose space,” Romero, 452 F.3d at 618 n.2, than the hotel room in Romero, Detective Canas had additional reason to suspect Cowan was involved in the drug trafficking activity. After breaking down the exterior door to the building and before entering the apartment, the officers saw someone running inside, which reasonably suggested people present in the apartment were trying to conceal evidence of drug trafficking activity. When Cowan stated he was from Chicago—the reputed source of the crack cocaine used in the suspected drug trafficking operation occurring in the apartment—Cowan gave Detective Canas particularized suspicion that Cowan himself was involved in the drug trafficking. The present case is further distinguishable from Ybarra because Detective Canas frisked Cowan’s outer clothing pursuant to Terry, and the search of Ybarra was not a valid Terry frisk. See Ybarra, 444 U.S. at 92-93. Detective Canas did not violate Cowan’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures by patting down Cowan’s pockets and seizing the keys.