8th Circuit reviews denial of drug defendant's motion to suppress evidence from a traffic stop…

Record source: CourtListener

United States Court of Appeals For the Eighth Circuit ___________________________ No. 24-2519 ___________________________ United States of America lllllllllllllllllllllPlaintiff - Appellee v. Robert Lee Drayton, Jr. lllllllllllllllllllllDefendant - Appellant ____________ Appeal from United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Cedar Rapids ____________ Submitted: October 20, 2025 Filed: July 13, 2026 ____________ Before COLLOTON, Chief Judge, LOKEN and BENTON, Circuit Judges. ____________ LOKEN, Circuit Judge. Robert Lee Drayton, Jr., was indicted for possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. Following denial of his motion to suppress after an evidentiary hearing,1 1 Following the hearing, the Honorable Mark A. Roberts, United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Iowa, issued a lengthy Report and Drayton entered a conditional guilty plea on both counts and now appeals the denial of the motion to suppress, raising many issues the district court rejected. “In an appeal from a district court’s denial of a motion to suppress evidence, this court reviews factual findings for clear error, and questions of constitutional law de novo.” United States v. Givens, 763 F.3d 987, 989 (8th Cir. 2014) (quotation omitted), cert. denied, 574 U.S. 1202 (2015). I. Background The issues raised on appeal arise primarily from extended encounters between Cedar Rapids police and Drayton on February 23, 2023. Those encounters require a brief summary to frame the issues. On February 16, Cedar Rapids police uncovered a substantial quantity of methamphetamine during a traffic stop. The driver said he received the drugs from his source, Robert Drayton, and agreed to become a confidential informant (“CI”) in the police investigation of Drayton. On February 23, the CI told the police that Drayton had received a load of methamphetamine that he would be packaging at his home that day. Police began surveilling Drayton’s home. They saw a car arrive around 1:30 P.M. and leave after nine minutes; Drayton and his girlfriend left shortly thereafter. The CI advised that Drayton had not yet received the controlled substances. Officers followed Drayton’s car and saw it park at an intersection. Another man entered the vehicle for a few minutes and spoke briefly with Drayton. Suspecting a drug transaction, officers conducted a traffic stop and found a gun, two MDMA pills, and eight grams of methamphetamine. Drayton and his girlfriend were Recommendation that the motion to suppress be denied. The Honorable C.J. Williams, Chief Judge of the Northern District of Iowa, adopted the Report and Recommendation and denied Drayton’s motion to suppress. -2- not detained.2 Continuing their surveillance of the car, police saw Drayton engage in what appeared to be multiple drug transactions that afternoon. He drove around Cedar Rapids, stopping in several public parking lots where persons would speak to Drayton inside his car for a few minutes and exit the vehicle. Later in the afternoon, officers saw Drayton drop off his girlfriend and drive to the Marcus Theatres parking lot. Another van pulled alongside. A man exited the van and placed a bag in the backseat of Drayton’s car. Officers suspected the delivery of drugs. At 4:00 P.M. Officer Matthew Jenatscheck in an unmarked patrol car was asked to be in that area. He knew from police dispatch reports that other officers observed Drayton pull into the parking lot where another man put a bag in his vehicle. Jenatscheck went to the parking lot and followed Drayton when he left and drove onto Interstate I-380. Canine Officer Cody Vry also followed Drayton in another police car. As Drayton’s car traveled southbound, Jenatscheck saw it hit the fog line three times. Jenatscheck turned on his lights and initiated a traffic stop. Drayton changed lanes without signaling before pulling to a stop. Vry and two other officers joined the traffic stop. Officer Jenatscheck exited his patrol car and went to the window of Drayton’s vehicle. Drayton handed Jenatscheck his driver’s license. While Jenatscheck ran a routine check of the license information in his patrol car, Officer Vry conducted an open-air dog sniff around Drayton’s car. Before Jenatscheck completed the routine check, Vry’s drug dog alerted on the vehicle. Officers took Drayton into custody and searched his car, where they found a handgun and a duffel bag containing what field lab tests confirmed were several kilograms of methamphetamine. Police arrested Drayton and seized two cellphones found in his car. 2 Drayton does not challenge the constitutionality of this stop. -3-  Police took Drayton into custody and brought him to an interview room, where they detained Drayton while other officers executed a warrant search of his home. Expressly waiving his Miranda rights, Drayton told investigators that he picked up the duffel bag from a third-party and was waiting for a phone call with instructions for a drop-off point. He told investigators he had dropped off similar packages four times in the past three months. He denied knowing their contents but agreed with the officers that the packages likely contained drugs or weapons. A sample of Drayton’s urine tested positive for methamphetamine and other drugs. In the warrant search of Drayton’s home, officers found five guns, methamphetamine and other drugs, $4,774 in cash, and drug packaging material. On April 3, Cedar Rapids Police Investigator and Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force Officer Matthew Cummings applied for, and Magistrate Judge Roberts issued, a warrant to search Drayton’s cellphones. Executing that warrant, police found conversations about drug transactions. On April 5, the government filed a grand jury indictment charging Drayton with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(A) and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1). Drayton moved to suppress the contraband seized during the second stop of his vehicle, his admissions during the following police station interview, evidence collected as a result of the warrant search of his home on February 23 and his cellphones in April, and the results of drug tests of the duffel bag and his urine. Drayton argued (i) police lacked reasonable suspicion or probable cause to execute the second traffic stop; (ii) Officers Jenatscheck and Vry impermissibly prolonged the traffic stop to conduct the dog sniff; and (iii) all subsequent evidence including his incriminating statements in the police interview and the warrant searches of his residence and cellphones were unconstitutional fruit of this poisonous tree. On September 5, Magistrate Judge Roberts conducted an evidentiary hearing on Drayton’s motion to suppress. Cedar Rapids Police Officers Jenatscheck, Vry, -4- Cummings, and Mitchell Magill testified for the government and were thoroughly cross-examined. The Magistrate Judge found them credible. On October 10, the Magistrate Judge issued a 43-page Report and Recommendation that Drayton’s motion

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