United States v. Azua-Rinconada

• Decision Date: 28 January 2019
• Docket Number: No. 17-4344,17-4344
• Citation: 914 F.3d 319
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee, v. Ismael AZUA-RINCONADA, Defendant - Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

914 F.3d 319

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff - Appellee,

v.Ismael AZUA-RINCONADA, Defendant - Appellant.

No. 17-4344

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

Argued: September 28, 2018

Decided: January 28, 2019

ARGUED: Anne Margaret Hayes, Cary, North Carolina, for Appellant. Kristine L. Fritz, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee. ON BRIEF: Robert J. Higdon, Jr., United States Attorney, Jennifer, P. May-Parker, Acting First Assistant United States Attorney, Phillip A. Rubin, Assistant United States Attorney, OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES ATTORNEY, Raleigh, North Carolina, for Appellee.

Before NIEMEYER and KEENAN, Circuit Judges, and Norman K. MOON, United States District Judge for the Western District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Niemeyer wrote the opinion, in which Judge Keenan and Judge Moon joined. Judge Keenan wrote a separate opinion, concurring.

NIEMEYER, Circuit Judge:

After Ismael Azua-Rinconada ("Azua") was indicted for illegally entering the United States in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), he filed two motions to suppress all statements and all other evidence obtained by law enforcement officers during their encounter with him prior to his arrest. He alleged that the officers, acting without a warrant, gained access to his residence through coercion, in violation of the Fourth Amendment, and that they then subjected him to custodial interrogation without providing him with Miranda warnings, in violation of the Fifth Amendment. Following a hearing, the district court denied the motions, concluding that the officers received voluntary consent to enter Azua’s residence and that Azua was not in custody when he voluntarily gave answers to the officers’ questions. A jury then found Azua guilty of violating § 1326(a), and the court sentenced him to time served and committed him to the custody of the Department of Homeland Security for deportation.

On appeal, Azua contends that the district court erred in denying his suppression motions because (1) the law enforcement officers did not have valid consent to enter his residence and thus needed a warrant, and (2) the officers’ interrogation of him was custodial and thus violated his Fifth Amendment rights because no Miranda warnings had been given. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

I

On the morning of January 6, 2016, a team of six law enforcement officers working with Homeland Security Investigations ("HSI") set out on a "knock and talk" operation in a mobile home park in Robeson County, North Carolina. The team was led by HSI Special Agent Bryan Moultis and included Corporal José Hernandez, a detective in the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office who spoke Spanish. At approximately 9:30 a.m., Agent Moultis and Corporal Hernandez approached the trailer that was Azua’s residence to conduct a "knock and talk." At the time, Moultis was wearing a shirt with "police" written across the chest, was carrying a holstered firearm, and had his badge around his neck. Hernandez was also carrying a holstered firearm and was wearing a body cam that recorded the interaction that followed.

As Agent Moultis and Corporal Hernandez stood on either side of the front door of the trailer, Hernandez knocked on the door. After receiving no response, he continued to knock, saying "open the door" in Spanish. Hernandez then said, in English, "Publisher’s Clearinghouse," and Moultis remarked that he could hear voices from inside the residence. Hernandez then knocked more forcefully and said in Spanish, "Open the door or we’re going to knock it down," followed, in English, by "Police, open the door."

When Azua and his fiancée, Amaryllis Powell, who was pregnant with Azua’s child, heard the officers’ knocks and the threat to knock down the door, they became scared. But when Azua realized that it was police who were at the door, he instructed Powell to open it because, as he testified, "I knew nothing was going to happen to her." He also testified that he did not "believe that they were going to take the door down." Powell testified that when she opened the door following Azua’s instruction, she did so "with consent" and found the officers to be "professional."

After Powell opened the door, Corporal Hernandez greeted her and asked if she was the only person home. She responded that she was. But when Agent Moultis commented that he and Corporal Hernandez had "heard a whole lot more footsteps than [hers]," Powell acknowledged that she was not alone. Moultis then asked Powell if she would "mind if we came in and talked to you" and remarked, "we’d like to talk to you ... but it’s awfully cold out here." Powell responded, "okay, you can come in" and gestured with her hand for the officers to come inside. As she opened the door wider, she again said, "okay, you can come in." Corporal Hernandez said that he "appreciate[d] it" and shook Powell’s hand.

Agent Moultis, Corporal Hernandez, and one other officer then entered the trailer. The officers did not perform a security sweep, but they did request that Powell ask everyone in the trailer to come to the living room "just for safety reasons." At that point, Oscar Lopez, Azua’s brother-in-law, who also lived at the residence, walked into the living room while Powell took a seat on the couch. As Agent Moultis began to explain why the officers were there, indicating that they had received information regarding illegal activity in the area, Azua walked into the room and took a seat on the couch next to Powell. Moultis greeted Azua by saying, "Hey man, how are you?" Moultis then asked Azua, Powell, and Lopez if there were any firearms in the trailer. Lopez responded that he was renting the trailer and owned some firearms. Moultis requested that Lopez complete a consent form authorizing the police to search the premises, and he also asked Lopez if a canine unit could come into the house to assist in the search. Lopez agreed.

While Lopez was filling out the consent-to-search form, Agent Moultis asked Azua and Powell where they were from originally. Powell responded that she was from North Carolina, and Azua responded that he was from Mexico, providing Moultis with his Mexican voter registration card as identification. Agent Moultis then gave Azua a questionnaire designed to determine a person’s immigration status. He requested that Azua fill out the questionnaire, using phrases such as "I want you to start filling this out" and explaining that he wanted Azua "to answer every question."

While Azua was filling out the questionnaire, Agent Moultis told Lopez to come with him to the kitchen table, where Moultis asked Lopez questions regarding his firearms and reports of illegal activity in the area. While Agent Moultis spoke with Lopez, Azua and Powell sat on the couch alone as Azua completed the questionnaire.

When Azua had completed the questionnaire, Agent Moultis came back to the living room and took a seat on the couch to ask Azua about some of his answers. During the discussion, Moultis became suspicious of Azua’s legal status. He asked Powell if she had begun the process for Azua to become an American citizen, and Powell said that she wanted to but had not yet done so. Agent Moultis then said to Azua, "You’re going to have to help me out, because I can be a roadblock for that. I don’t necessarily want to, but if I don’t feel like you are being honest with me, I will be." Moultis further told Azua that, according to his questionnaire, he was "an illegal alien" and that he had "no status in the United States" and "should’ve never been here."

Agent Moultis then said to Azua, "Why don’t you come with me, grab some shoes real quick, and we’re going to go to my car real quick. We’re not going to go anywhere, we’re just going to grab some fingerprints." As Azua rose from the couch, Corporal Hernandez told him to put on a jacket because it was cold outside, at which point Azua walked into another room to change clothes. Azua then came back and followed Agent Moultis to his vehicle where he allowed Moultis to fingerprint him. When Moultis ran a check of the prints, he learned that Azua’s file contained two warrants for deportation. He thereupon arrested Azua, and placed him in handcuffs.

After Azua was indicted for illegal entry, in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(a), he filed two suppression motions — the first seeking to suppress all statements made to officers in his residence and the second seeking to suppress all evidence taken from his person and property. Following a hearing, a magistrate judge recommended that Azua’s motions be denied, concluding that Powell "gave voluntary and knowing consent for officers to enter the residence even if she heard Corporal Hernandez’s comment about breaking down the door" and that Azua "was not in custody" so as to require Miranda warnings. The district court adopted the recommendation of the magistrate judge as its own and denied Azua’s motions by order dated March 2, 2017.

A jury convicted Azua of illegal entry following trial, and the district court sentenced him to time served. He was then deported to Mexico.

II

Azua contends first that the law enforcement officers, operating without a warrant, gained entry into his residence through coercion — not by valid consent, as the officers claimed — by threatening to break down the door with "an implied claim of lawful authority," in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Because the entry was illegal, he asserts, all statements he made and all evidence obtained following the entry should have been suppressed.

The district court, adopting the findings of fact made by the magistrate judge, disagreed with Azua, finding that the officers were granted entry voluntarily. The court found that the officers "approached the door of the residence in mid-morning, without drawn weapons and knocked repeatedly without yelling or violent pounding on the door" and that Azua "directed Powell to answer the door after recognizing...