United States v. Massi

• Decision Date: 01 August 2014
• Docket Number: No. 12–51063.,12–51063.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee v. Matthew Joseph MASSI, Defendant–Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

761 F.3d 512

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff–Appellee

v.Matthew Joseph MASSI, Defendant–Appellant.

No. 12–51063.

United States Court of Appeals,Fifth Circuit.

Aug. 1, 2014.

Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, San Antonio, TX, Austin Maxwell Berry, Assistant U.S. Attorney, U.S. Attorney's Office, Midland, TX, for Plaintiff–Appellee.

Alvin E. Entin, Esq., Allison Beth Duffie, Esq., Entin & Della Fera, P.A., Fort Lauderdale, FL, Novert A. Morales, Morales & Navarrete Law Firm, Austin, TX, for Defendant–Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Before OWEN, SOUTHWICK, and GRAVES, Circuit Judges.

LESLIE H. SOUTHWICK, Circuit Judge:

Matthew Joseph Massi was arrested and charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841. He moved to suppress evidence uncovered during his detention by law enforcement officers. The district court denied the motion. Massi later entered a conditional plea agreement, preserving his right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to suppress. We AFFIRM.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Sometime before 6:00 p.m. on May 16, 2012, Massi and Jose Sanchez, the pilot of a chartered Mooney M20J single-engine airplane, landed at Midland International Airport in Midland, Texas en route from Las Vegas, Nevada to Orlando, Florida. At approximately the same time, the Air Marine Operations Center (“AMOC”), a center operating within United States Customsand Border Protection, set in motion an investigation of the airplane and its passengers. The explanation of why AMOC acted and what was done was proffered by Agent Josh Howard, the Government's witness at the suppression hearing. Agent Howard was a criminal investigator in the Midland office of the Homeland Security Investigations directorate, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is within the United States Department of Homeland Security. Agent Howard testified that AMOC, responsible for monitoring all air traffic in the United States, contacted the Midland Police Department (“MPD”) at 6:00 p.m. to request a “ramp check” of Massi's airplane. A ramp check, as described by Agent Howard, is a regulatory inspection that can be ordered at any time under regulations of the Federal Aviation Agency. He described the reach of a ramp check this way:

First and foremost, they will ask for consent to search the plane. They will ask for identities of all passengers and the pilot. And with AMOC's guidance, they will check FAA records. There should be an actual certificate displayed in the airplane.¹

Agent Howard testified that AMOC informed the agents of three facts that triggered AMOC's request for a ramp check: the airplane had flown from Orlando to Las Vegas, making six refueling stops along the way, stayed in Las Vegas for about twelve hours, then was returning to Orlando with Midland as a refueling stop; the registered owner of the airplane had been convicted of drug trafficking approximately twenty years earlier; and the passenger, Massi, had “recently” crossed from Tijuana, Mexico into the United States, which at some point was shown to have occurred on May 13, 2012.

Agent Howard's testimony is a little unclear as to exactly what was communicated to him by AMOC and when it was communicated. After testifying that he was told the three facts, he was asked, “And when they first told you suspicious flight activity, did they elaborate on that at that amount [?], or did you have to get that information later?” Howard answered: “I need to clarify that. I don't recall if they told me exactly what was going on at the time, but I did—I did corroborate the information.”

According to Agent Howard, three minutes after AMOC's 6:00 p.m. contact, MPD learned that the two men who had flown on the airplane had left to get food at a Subway sandwich location. When the men landed and then left for food is unclear. Two MPD officers, apparently stationed that evening at the airport, were the first to arrive at the aircraft. It is unclear whether Massi and Sanchez had yet returned. At 6:20 p.m., AMOC contacted the Homeland Security Investigations directorate. Agents Jerry Garnett and Kris Knight were dispatched to the airport. Those two agents thus began their investigatory work after 6:20 p.m. Agent Howard did not arrive until 7:30 p.m.

The MPD officers questioned Massi and Sanchez prior to the arrival of the Homeland Security agents. The officers requested documents and identification. Sanchez and Massi complied by retrieving documents from luggage from within the airplane. The luggage was placed on the airplane's wing and remained there for the duration of the investigation. Agents Knight and Garnett arrived after this initial questioning, briefly talked to the MPD officers, and then questioned Massi and Sanchez. They also made an exterior examination of the airplane. A canine unit was called at some point to conduct a sniff of the airplane's exterior, including the luggage. The canine, Gus, did not alert. Massi and Sanchez were asked and each denied consent to search the interior of the airplane. Simultaneous with denying consent to search, Massi attempted quickly to shut the airplane's open door. An MPD officer stopped Massi from doing so and told Massi to stay away from the airplane.

During the inspection of the airplane's exterior that is authorized under a ramp check, Agent Knight saw a cardboard box through the window of the airplane. The box, which was described as measuring “18 to 24 inches across,” was located behind the rear seat of the airplane. Agent Knight questioned Massi and Sanchez separately about the box. Sanchez said he had seen Massi put the box in the airplane. Massi, though, initially denied knowledge of the box. He first responded to Knight's question about who owned the box by saying, “I don't know what you are talking about.” Asked again, Massi said “I don't know of any boxes.” Then, having been told that Sanchez said he had put the box on the plane, Massi acknowledged that he owned the box and requested an attorney. At this request, Agent Knight stopped his questioning.

All the events just described occurred prior to Agent Howard's arrival at the airport, which was at approximately 7:30 p.m. For the next two hours, Agent Howard was on the scene “collecting facts about what had transpired” at the airport prior to his arrival. He did not question Massi or Sanchez, who were required to remain at the airplane. During this time, Agent Howard's office contacted an assistant United States Attorney to obtain guidance for the investigation. Approval was given to request a search warrant.

Agent Howard left the airport around 9:30 p.m. to return to his office, which was approximately twenty minutes from the airport by car. By 10:00 p.m., he began writing the affidavit to support a request for a search warrant. Agent Howard also corroborated information that was received earlier from AMOC. He emailed the affidavit to the United States Attorney's office and obtained its approval. He then contacted a federal magistrate judge, drove to the magistrate judge's residence, and obtained the signed warrant at 11:30 p.m. Agent Howard returned to the airport with the search warrant at approximately midnight and conducted a search of the airplane. Nineteen sealed bags of marijuana with a total weight of 10.50 kilograms were found within the cardboard box. Upon this discovery, Massi and Sanchez were immediately arrested, informed of their rights, and taken into custody.

Massi was charged with possession with intent to distribute marijuana. He moved to suppress all evidence seized in the search of the airplane as a product of an illegal arrest and improperly prolonged detention. The district court denied the motion. Massi pled guilty, conditioned on being allowed to appeal the validity of the order denying his motion to suppress.

DISCUSSION

In considering a district court's decision on a motion to suppress, this court reviews findings of facts for clear error and conclusions of law de novo. United States v. Rivas, 157 F.3d 364, 367 (5th Cir.1998). All record evidence is viewed “in the light most favorable to the party who prevailed in the district court.” United States v. Cardenas, 9 F.3d 1139, 1147 (5th Cir.1993). The district court's ruling should be upheld “if there is any reasonable view of the evidence to support it.” United States v. Michelletti, 13 F.3d 838, 841 (5th Cir.1994) (en banc) (quotation marks omitted).

Massi argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the search warrant relied upon by the officers was the product of an illegal seizure, namely, his lengthy detention at the airport. He contends that his detention was without reasonable suspicion, lacked probable cause, and was of a length that violated the Fourth Amendment. He further argues that his unconstitutional detention taints evidence obtained as a result of the search warrant's execution and that such evidence should be excluded as fruit of the poisonous tree.

The Government argues that Massi's detention was appropriate under the Fourth Amendment because the initial regulatory check was valid. As the investigation progressed, reasonable suspicion and eventually probable cause to search arose. The Government denies there was ever an illegal arrest. Regardless, the Government argues that the good faith exception to the exclusionary rule would permit the admissibility of any evidence obtained pursuant to the search warrant because the warrant was obtained and executed by an officer acting with objective good faith under United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984).

I. Legality of the Stop and Detention

The district court denied Massi's motion to suppress. The court held that there was “initial reasonable suspicion to make the stop and that it developed into probable...