Oklahoma City Associates v. Wal-Mart Stores Inc‪.‬

Appellants Anthony Ray Jefferson and Roosevelt Jefferson, Jr., were arrested in Wyoming after officers discovered eight ounces of cocaine base (more commonly known as crack) in the trunk of a car they were occupying. They were charged and convicted in federal court of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance under 21 U.S.C. § 841(a). The appellants have presented a number of important issues for this court to consider, impacting the sentencing phase as well as the guilt phase of their trial. Among these are: (1) whether a non-owner driver of a car has a Fourth Amendment right to privacy in the car when the owner is present as a passenger; (2) whether a telephone pager bill introduced into evidence by the government to show that the accused owned a telephone pager constitutes inadmissible hearsay; and (3) whether the district court committed reversible error during the sentencing phase of the trial when it stated that it did not have the discretion to depart from the United States Sentencing Guidelines. For reasons discussed below, we affirm the guilt phase of the trial and remand for reconsideration of the sentences.