Court affirms gun convictions of Riverdale man who interrupted wife

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, housed at the Lewis F. Powell Jr. U.S. Courthouse in Richmond, Virginia. (U.S. General Services Administration)

A divided federal appeals court this week provided a lesson in why husbands should never answer for their wives as it upheld a Riverdale man’s firearms convictions.

The 4^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a law enforcement officer did not violate Quintin Antonio Bell’s right to remain silent when he answered the officer’s question if there were any guns in their house. Specifically, the officer did not impinge on Bell’s right by attempting to elicit an incriminating statement from him because the question was directed not at Bell but at his wife, the court said in its published 2-1 decision.

Bell’s response that a gun was under the couch led to its discovery and his convictions in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt for possessing a firearm as a felon and in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. He appealed the conviction, arguing that police had failed to notify him of his right to remain silent while holding him in custody in his home.

The court said the Miranda warning — well-known to fans of television crime shows — was not needed because his wife, Stacy, was the person being questioned when he cut in without any prompting from special agent Frank Oliver of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“It can hardly be said that overhearing a single question posed to one’s spouse creates the necessary level of compulsion without more,” Judge Paul V. Niemeyer wrote in the decision joined by Judge Albert Diaz. “To be sure, Bell was within earshot, and thus it was within the realm of possibility that he would interject to answer the question. But a conclusion that agent Oliver should have known that his question to Stacy was likely to prompt an incriminatory response from Bell cannot be reconciled with the record before us, including the district court’s factual findings, which Bell does not challenge.”

In dissent, Judge James A. Wynn Jr. said the majority, like U.S. District Court Judge George J. Hazel, improperly focused their attention on Oliver’s intent to direct the question at Stacy rather than on Bell’s perspective that the inquiry was aimed at him as he was sitting near his wife.

“(N)owhere in the district court’s oral ruling, or its earlier factual findings, did the district court consider the relevant question: whether a reasonable suspect in defendant’s position would have believed that special agent Oliver’s question was directed at defendant,” Wynn wrote.

“Even though special agent Oliver intended to – and, according to his unrebutted testimony, did in fact – direct the question to defendant’s wife, a person seated directly behind and in close proximity to defendant’s wife, as defendant was, may have reasonably believed that special Agent Oliver was directing the question to him or to both he and his wife,” Wynn added. “Put differently, special agent Oliver’s testimony in no way precludes a finding that a reasonable person in defendant’s position would have believed the question was directed at him – the dispositive issue never addressed by the district court.”

In addition to the firearms conviction, the district court jury found Bell guilty of possession with intent to distribute at least 100 grams of heroin and possession with intent to distribute a quantity of heroin and cocaine base. He was sentenced to an enhanced term of 40 years in prison based on prior convictions.

The 4^th Circuit rendered its decision in United States v. Quintin Antonio Bell, No. 16-4343.