Case: 19-10083 Date Filed: 08/03/2020 Page: 1 of 11 [PUBLISH] IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________ No. 19-10083 ________________________ D.C. Docket No. 8:18-cr-00100-VMC-AAS-1 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus ANTHONY W. KNIGHTS, Defendant-Appellant. ________________________ Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida ________________________ (August 3, 2020) Before WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge, ROSENBAUM, Circuit Judge, and MOORE, * District Judge. WILLIAM PRYOR, Chief Judge: * Honorable K. Michael Moore, Chief United States District Judge for the Southern District of Florida, sitting by designation. Case: 19-10083 Date Filed: 08/03/2020 Page: 2 of 11 This appeal requires us to decide whether officers violated Anthony Knights’s right to be free from unreasonable seizures, under the Fourth Amendment, by conducting an investigatory stop without reasonable suspicion. Two officers saw Knights and Hozell Keaton around 1:00 a.m. in a car that was parked in the front yard of a home. Suspecting that the men might be trying to steal the car, the officers parked near it and approached Knights, who was in the driver’s seat. When Knights opened the door, an officer immediately smelled marijuana. The ensuing search of Knights and the car revealed ammunition and firearms. Because Knights had felony convictions, a grand jury charged him with possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon, 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1), 924(a)(2). Knights moved to suppress the evidence the officers found and the statements he made as fruit of an unlawful seizure. The district court denied the motion, convicted Knights, and sentenced him to 33 months of imprisonment. We affirm because Knights’s interaction with the officers was a consensual encounter that did not implicate the Fourth Amendment. I. BACKGROUND Late at night, Anthony Knights, Hozell Keaton, and Knights’s nephew were smoking marijuana and listening to music while sitting in or standing near an Oldsmobile sedan in Tampa, Florida. The car was parked in a grassy area between the street and the white fence of a home that belonged to one of Keaton’s relatives. 2 Case: 19-10083 Date Filed: 08/03/2020 Page: 3 of 11 The driver’s side of the car was near the street and the passenger’s side was near the fence. On a routine patrol around 1:00 a.m., Officers Andrew Seligman and Brian Samuel of the Tampa Police Department saw two of the car’s doors open with Knights and Keaton leaning into the car. The officers believed that Knights and Keaton might be stealing something from the car. They knew the area to be “high crime” and to have gang activity from their experience responding to multiple shootings and narcotics crimes. So they drove past the Oldsmobile for a better look. Knights and Keaton then “gave the officers a blank stare,” and according to Officer Seligman, “kind of seemed nervous.” The officers then heard someone unsuccessfully try to start the car. Thinking that Knights and Keaton “might be actually trying to steal the vehicle,” the officers decided to investigate further. Officer Seligman decided to turn ...
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