Date: 08-18-2024

Case Style:

United States of America v. Sylvester Cunningham

Case Number: 1:20-cr-00104

Judge: C.J. Williams

Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa (Linn County)

Plaintiff's Attorney: United States District Attorney’s Office in Cedar Rapids

Defendant's Attorney:

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Description:

Cedar Rapids, Iowa "unlawful possession of a firearm as a convicted felon, possession with intent to distribute cocaine, and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense lawyer.

Cunningham, a twice-convicted felon serving a federal term of supervised release, was arrested for possessing a firearm and cocaine at a Walmart store in Cedar Rapids in August 2020. At the time of the incident, Cunningham had been convicted of two prior felonies: driving under the influence of alcohol in 2005 in Illinois, and possession of a firearm as a convicted felon in federal court in 2012.

Cunningham arrived at the Walmart in a vehicle, traveled from the vehicle to the entrance in his own wheelchair, and then transferred to a motorized cart owned by Walmart for use while shopping. When Cunningham first transferred from his wheelchair to a motorized cart, the cart did not work. A Walmart employee helped Cunningham move to a second motorized cart, which also did not work, and then to a third motorized cart, which functioned properly. Cunningham's personal wheelchair remained near the front of the store, pushed against a wall.

Cunningham moved into the store on the motorized cart, but soon returned to the entrance looking for his cellular phone. He seemed to have misplaced the phone when switching motorized carts. When he could not find the phone in or around the carts, Cunningham received permission from the Walmart employee to drive the motorized cart to the parking lot so that he could check for the phone in his vehicle.

While Cunningham returned to his vehicle, the Walmart employee suspected that the phone could have slid under the seat cushion in Cunningham's personal wheelchair. She lifted the seat cushion and did not find a phone, but observed a firearm. She notified a Walmart manager, who approached the wheelchair and also saw the gun.

The first Walmart employee notified police officer Matthes who was outside the store and about to begin a shift working in uniform to provide security. The Walmart employee told Matthes that she needed immediate assistance because someone in the store had left a gun in a wheelchair. The employee explained that she found the gun under the seat cushion while helping a customer look for a lost cell phone. The Walmart manager stayed near the wheelchair, presumably to ensure that no patron in the vestibule would encounter the firearm. When Matthes entered the store, the manager pointed down at the wheelchair.

By then, Cunningham had returned to the store and was seated in a motorized shopping cart near the entrance. When Matthes questioned him about a gun, Cunningham admitted the wheelchair was his, but denied having a weapon or placing a weapon in the wheelchair. He also admitted that he did not have a permit to carry a firearm, and that he was on federal "probation" (i.e., supervised release) for a prior firearms offense. Cunningham claimed that when he entered the store, there was no gun in or on the wheelchair. Matthes then lifted the seat cushion in the wheelchair and seized a revolver from the seat area.

Cunningham was allowed to transfer from the motorized cart back to his personal wheelchair, and he then moved to a security office in the store. Officers placed Cunningham under arrest and searched his person incident to arrest. In Cunningham's undergarment, officers found a blue latex glove containing thirteen individually-wrapped bags of cocaine, six containing cocaine base and seven containing powder cocaine.

Cunningham moved to suppress the firearm seized from the wheelchair. He also sought to exclude the drugs seized from his person, and any statements that he made after the discovery of the firearm, on the ground that the additional evidence was the fruit of an earlier unlawful search.

The district court ruled that Officer Matthes did not violate Cunningham's rights under the Fourth Amendment by searching the wheelchair and seizing the firearm. The court thus denied the motion to suppress the firearm and rejected Cunningham's claim that later evidence-gathering was the fruit of an unlawful search and seizure.

Cunningham also moved to dismiss the charge in the indictment that he unlawfully possessed a firearm as a convicted felon. He argued that the statutory prohibition of 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1) infringed on his right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment. The district court rejected Cunningham's argument because his circumstances did not distinguish him from those of persons who were historically barred from possessing firearms.

Outcome: The case proceeded to trial, and a jury convicted Cunningham on all counts. The district court denied Cunningham's motion for judgment of acquittal, and sentenced him to a total term of eighty-seven months' imprisonment, followed by five years of supervised release.


Affirmed

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