No. 22-1824 ___________________________

United States of America,

Plaintiff Appellee,

v.

Jessica Lyn Mathes,

Defendant Appellant. ____________

Appeal from United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Delta ____________

Submitted: November 18, 2022 Filed: January 26, 2023 ____________ Before COLLOTON, SHEPHERD, and GRASZ, Circuit Judges. ____________ COLLOTON, Circuit Judge.

Jessica Mathes pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. On appeal, Mathes challenges an order of the district court*

* The Honorable Lee P. Rudofsky, United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Arkansas. denying her motion to suppress evidence obtained during a traffic stop. We conclude there was no error, and affirm the order.

This case began with a traffic stop near West Memphis, Arkansas. In February 2020, Detective Jamie Counce, a narcotics officer with the West Memphis Police Department, stopped a truck for careless driving and improper display of a license plate, in violation of Arkansas law. See Ark. Code Ann. §§ 27-51-104(a), -14-716(b).

After initiating the stop, Counce approached the truck and identified the driver, Clinton Humes, who was shaking and acting nervously. Counce also identified two passengers: Juston Ashburn, sitting in the back seat, and Mathes, sitting in the front passenger seat. Counce then contacted a police dispatcher to obtain background information on the occupants and the truck.

While waiting for information from the dispatcher, Counce asked the occupants if they had ever been arrested. Ashburn and Mathes both responded that they had been arrested for drugs. Shortly thereafter, the dispatcher notified Counce that Ashburn was on “active supervision probation,” but did not relay any information about Mathes or Humes.

Counce asked Humes to step out of the truck and follow him to the back of the vehicle. He asked Humes where the truck was heading. Humes responded that Mathes had just picked him up from work, and that they were heading back to St. Francis County. Counce then obtained Humes’s consent to search the truck and asked the passengers to exit the vehicle.

Counce searched Ashburn, found methamphetamine in his undergarment, and arrested him. Counce next searched the truck and found a digital scale inside the console between the front seats. The scale was covered in a white powder residue, which Counce believed was methamphetamine. Counce arrested both Mathes and

-2- Humes for possession of drug paraphernalia. A female officer searched Mathes and found small bags of methamphetamine in Mathes’s bra and pants.

Officers transported the three arrestees to the police department. There, Mathes admitted to owning the scale found in the console and the methamphetamine found on her person. She also confessed to selling methamphetamine.

A grand jury charged Mathes with one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine. See 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), (b)(1)(B). Mathes moved to suppress all evidence and testimony related to her arrest based on alleged violations of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. The district court denied the motion, and Mathes entered a conditional guilty plea that reserved her right to appeal the denial of the motion to suppress. See Fed. R. Crim. P. 11(a)(2).

Mathes first argues that Counce unlawfully prolonged the traffic stop in violation of the Fourth Am