DISCLAIMER: The following unofficial case summaries are prepared by the clerk's office
as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
153651P.pdf 11/22/2016 United States v. Cartez Lamar Cook
U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 15-3651
U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - St. Paul
[PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author, with Gruender and Shepherd, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - Criminal case. A reasonable person seeing the police car's
lights - which had been activated in a distinctive wig wag pattern
different from full emergency lights - would have thought he was still at
liberty to ignore the police presence and go about his business, and
officers did not seize defendant by approaching his parked car; defendant
was only seized after he voluntarily rolled down his window and police
smelled marijuana; no error in admitting circumstantial evidence which
connected defendant to a shooting death involving the gun seized from his
vehicle as the evidence was highly probative of defendant's possession of
the firearm.