USA v. Quintanilla

• Decision Date: 01 October 1999
• Docket Number: No. 97-2332,97-2332
• Parties: (10th Cir. 1999) UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MARIBEL QUINTANILLA, Defendant-Appellee
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1139

193 F.3d 1139 (10th Cir. 1999)

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. MARIBEL QUINTANILLA, Defendant-Appellee.

No. 97-2332

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, TENTH CIRCUIT

October 1, 1999

APPEAL FROM UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW MEXICO. D.C. No. CR-94-320-MV

[Copyrighted Material Omitted] Richard A. Friedman, Appellate Section, Criminal Division, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C. (John J. Kelly, United States Attorney, and Fred J. Federici, Assistant United States Attorney, with him on the brief), for the appellant.

Barbara A. Mandel, Assistant Federal Public Defender (Ann Steinmetz, Federal Public Defender, with her on the brief), Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the appellee.

Before SEYMOUR, Chief Judge, BALDOCK, and BRISCOE, Circuit Judges.

BRISCOE, Circuit Judge.

The United States appeals from the district court's grant of defendant's motion for a new trial following her conviction for conspiracy to possess, and possession with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of methamphetamine. We exercise jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1291 and reverse.

I.

On April 29, 1994, defendant Maribel Quintanilla, driving a Dodge Ram Charger truck with Texas plates, was stopped at a United States Border Patrol checkpoint in Alamogordo, New Mexico. In response to questioning from an agent regarding her itinerary, defendant stated she had been traveling from El Paso, Texas, to Alamogordo. She claimed her half-brother,¹ Adan Aleman,² owned the vehicle. Defendant gave a series of conflicting stories regarding the purpose of her visit, several of which contained information the agent knew to be false. Following this discussion, the agent directed defendant to a secondary inspection area adjacent to the checkpoint and asked if he could examine the truck in greater detail. Defendant consented.

Examination of the underside of the truck revealed multiple scratches on the vent hose and shiny new bolts on the gas tank, suggesting the tank recently had been removed and replaced. With defendant's consent, the agent brought a drug-detection dog to the scene, and the canine alerted to the tank. As other officers removed the tank, defendant asked the agent what would happen to her and her two children (who were passengers in the truck) if drugs were found inside. The agent told defendant she would be arrested in such a scenario. Upon removing the tank, officers discovered a metal box inside containing thirty-five pounds of ninety-two percent pure methamphetamine. A subsequent registration check revealed the license plate on the truck was registered to a different vehicle belonging to an individual from Pecos, Texas. Defendant was then arrested.

After being advised of her Miranda rights, defendant told Agent Susan Sanchez she had traveled from her home in Los Angeles to Jurarez, Mexico, with her daughters and Aleman. At the time of her arrest, defendant maintained she was en route to a party in Alamogordo and was driving a truck loaned to her by Aleman. She claimed she planned to return the truck to Aleman in Alamogordo and then fly back to Los Angeles with her children. In an attempt to verify these statements, Sanchez drove defendant to the site of the alleged rendezvous point, but Aleman was nowhere to be found.

That same day, Sanchez phoned defendant's husband, Tomas Quintanilla, in California to alert him to his wife's arrest and the need to pick up his children. Upon arriving the next day, defendant's husband agreed to assist authorities in locating Aleman. Specifically, in the event Aleman called defendant's home in Los Angeles looking for her, defendant's husband directed his stepson, who remained at the residence, to tell Aleman defendant was in Alamogordo having her truck repaired. Sanchez gave the stepson a phone number where defendant could be reached which, although purportedly that of the repair garage, actually went to Sanchez' cellular phone.

The next evening, April 30, 1994, Aleman (identifying himself as Alfredo Ortiz) called Sanchez' cellular phone. Sanchez told him defendant was not available but that her truck was being serviced in the shop. Aleman phoned back the following morning at which time Sanchez told him defendant had paid for all repairs, returned to Los Angeles with her husband, and left a note stating the owner of the truck would be coming to pick up the vehicle. Aleman promised he (as the purported owner) would arrange to have the truck retrieved. He called again later that afternoon and stated an individual named Manny Bautista would be arriving from El Paso to pick up the vehicle.

When Bautista arrived, Sanchez required him to verify his permission from the truck's owner to take the vehicle. Bautista called Aleman on Sanchez' phone, and Aleman verified to Sanchez that Bautista was acting at his direction. Aleman also offered two telephone numbers and an address where he could be reached. The address he gave was that of defendant's prior residence in Los Angeles. One of the phone numbers he gave was traced to an El Paso home owned by Adan Saranda.³ That number was also the one Bautista had used to contact Aleman. As Bautista got in the truck to drive off, he was immediately arrested.

That same day, defendant wrote a note to Agent Sanchez from her jail cell indicating Aleman could be found at the El Paso home of Saranda. The note, translated from Spanish, read:

Will you please follow Aleman, and you will find that you will find something out. The name is Adan Saranda. This is the address. And the true name is Salvador Gallegos, but he goes by the name of a deceased person in Michigan. The address is here. I got it. Please watch him, and you will not regret it.

R. Vol. X at 750. Phone records later revealed that on April 26, 1994, three days before defendant's arrest, two phone calls were made from Saranda's El Paso home to defendant's current Los Angeles residence. In addition, on April 30, 1994, the day after defendant's arrest, four calls were made from Saranda's El Paso home to defendant's current Los Angeles home.

After Bautista had been arrested and advised of his rights on May 1, 1994, he agreed to make a controlled delivery of methamphetamine. At the direction of federal agents, Bautista phoned Aleman at Saranda's El Paso address and stated the truck was leaking gas and needed repairs. Aleman directed Bautista to drive the vehicle to a designated location in Los Angeles. Accompanied by federal agents, Bautista followed Aleman's directive. Once he and the agents arrived at the specified spot, Bautista called Saranda. Saranda picked up Bautista and the two drove to meet with Luis Viveros, who was driving a red Toyota registered to defendant. Following a brief discussion, the parties went their separate ways. After dropping Bautista at the airport, Saranda went to a residence in Pico Rivera, California and picked up Viveros. The two then drove to the location of the Dodge Ram Charger truck and returned it to the garage of the Pico Rivera home.

Within a short period of time, federal agents surrounded the Pico Rivera residence, executed a search warrant, and arrested Saranda and Viveros. Agent Sanchez testified the home looked like a "stash house." She observed there was no refrigerator or stove in the kitchen, none of the cabinets had been cleaned, and trashbags were scattered everywhere with remnants of fast food restaurant purchases. Additionally, agents found $8900 in cash hidden inside a hollowed-out plastic entertainment center and two nine-millimeter handguns. In the garage, agents found a rivet gun, rivets, silicone, and other tools necessary to seal a false compartment on a gas tank. Although not disclosed to the jury, agents also seized 264.7 grams of methamphetamine and 53.7 grams of marijuana. Sanchez noted that, in her experience, such surroundings often reflect the type of environment used by individuals involved in narcotics trafficking.

Several items seized in the residence were connected to defendant. In one of the bedrooms, agents discovered a Western Union money gram receipt of $300 sent by Viveros to defendant on April 29, 1994, the day of her arrest. In the interior of the house and in the garage, agents also found numerous receipts with defendant's name and Los Angeles address. Further, telephone records reflected that in the two months preceding the search of the Pico Rivera residence, fifty-nine telephone calls had been made from that residence to Saranda's El Paso home.

Defendant, along with Aleman and Viveros, was indicted in May 1994 in the District of New Mexico for conspiracy to possess, and possession with intent to distribute one kilogram or more of methamphetamine. Approximately two months before trial, the court granted defendant's motion to sever. As a result of a flurry of pre-trial motions, the court continued the trial setting on multiple occasions. The latest trial date, ordered upon defendant's motion, was April 10, 1995.

On April 4, 1995, defendant filed a motion for a continuance of the trial, slated to begin in six days. Defendant moved for a continuance to permit Viveros' trial to be concluded first so his testimony might become available to defendant in her trial. Defendant's counsel stated, inter alia, that he had spoken with Viveros' attorney and learned Viveros planned to deny knowing defendant, claim he was driving defendant's red Toyota because a third-party had loaned it to him, and state he had wired money to defendant at the direction of a third-party. The motion for continuance further states Viveros' attorney had informed defendant's counsel that Viveros would assert his Fifth Amendment rights if called as a witness prior to the completion of his trial. Based upon these representations from Viveros' attorney, defendant requested a continuance of her trial to permit the government to proceed with Viveros' case first. (On the date this motion was filed, Viveros had not yet...