U.S. v. Baker

• Decision Date: 16 January 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-1006,89-1006
• Citation: 894 F.2d 1144
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David James BAKER, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

Page 1144

894 F.2d 1144

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. David James BAKER, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 89-1006.

United States Court of Appeals Tenth Circuit.

Jan. 16, 1990.

James R. Allison, Asst. U.S. Atty. (Michael J. Norton, Acting U.S. Atty., with him on the brief), Denver, Colo., for plaintiff-appellee.

Mark D. Eibert, Asst. Federal Public Defender (Michael G. Katz, Federal Public Defender, with him on the brief), Denver, Colo., for defendant-appellant.

Before LOGAN, SETH, and MOORE, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Defendant appeals from his conviction on one count of manufacturing methamphetamine and one count of possession of the precursor P2P with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, both in violation of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1), and also seeks review of the sentences subsequently imposed by the district court thereon. The primary issue presented on this appeal concerns the denial of defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained through a search within Indian country authorized and conducted solely by state authorities. Because we decide that the motion should have been granted, and the district court's failure to so rule cannot, on the record before us, be characterized as harmless, we reverse defendant's conviction without reaching the additional, analytically independent issues raised herein.

On September 13, 1989, deputy sheriff James Ezzell, an investigator with the La Plata County Sheriff's Department, applied for and obtained a warrant from the District Court of La Plata County, Colorado, to search the residence and outbuildings of a parcel of property recently rented by defendant. At no point during the pertinent events, from application for the warrant through its execution, were federal officers in any way involved in the proceedings. Ultimately, however, evidence of illegal activity recovered during the search was made available to federal authorities, who utilized the evidence, over objection, in obtaining defendant's conviction below.

Defendant contends that the search warrant was void as beyond the issuing state court's jurisdiction pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Secs. 1151-1153, because it purports to authorize a search for evidence of criminal activity on property rented by an enrolled member of the Southern Ute Tribe and located within the exterior boundaries of Southern Ute tribal lands. Since it is undisputed that defendant's property was located within Indian country and Colorado has never obtained an extension of its jurisdiction to include such lands, we must agree with defendant that the La Plata County District Court acted beyond its authority in issuing the search warrant for evidence of suspected criminal activity on defendant's property. See United States v. Burnett, 777 F.2d 593, 596 (10th Cir.1985) (expressly noting "agreement with analysis and conclusion" in State v. Burnett, 671 P.2d 1165, 1166-68 (Okla.Crim.App.1983), which held that state criminal jurisdiction over Indian country is precluded unless state has previously manifested by affirmative political action its intent to assume jurisdiction pursuant to 25 U.S.C. Sec. 1321(a)), cert. denied, 476 U.S. 1106, 106 S.Ct. 1952, 90 L.Ed.2d 361 (1986); Langley v. Ryder, 778 F.2d 1092, 1095-96 (5th Cir.1985) (once land is determined to be Indian country, state criminal jurisdiction is preempted on subjects relating to Indians, tribes, and their property, absent the consent of Congress to such jurisdiction); see, e.g., Bartlett v. Solem, 691 F.2d 420, 421 (8th Cir.1982) (en banc) (affirming grant of habeas corpus petition on ground that state lacked jurisdiction to prosecute tribal member for offense committed within Indian country), aff'd, 465 U.S. 463, 467 n. 8, 104 S.Ct. 1161, 1164 n. 8, 79 L.Ed.2d 443 (1984) (noting exclusive federal and tribal criminal jurisdiction under Secs. 1152, 1153); see also Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes v. Oklahoma, 618 F.2d 665, 668 (10th Cir.1980) ("States have no authority over Indians in Indian country unless it is expressly conferred by Congress").

The government argues against application of the general exclusion of state jurisdiction over Indian country on two grounds. First, the government maintains that this case falls within the exception to exclusive federal and tribal jurisdiction established in United States v. McBratney, 104 U.S. 621, 26 L.Ed. 869 (1881). Subsequent case law, however, has for some time quite clearly limited the McBratney exception to crimes committed by non-Indians against non-Indians, see, e.g., United States v. Antelope, 430 U.S. 641, 643 n. 2, 648 n. 9, 97 S.Ct. 1395, 1397 n. 2, 1399-1400 n. 9, 51 L.Ed.2d 701 (1977); Williams v. United States, 327 U.S. 711, 714-15 n. 10, 66 S.Ct. 778, 780 n. 10, 90 L.Ed. 962 (1946); Donnelly v. United States, 228 U.S. 243, 271-72, 33 S.Ct. 449, 458-59, 57 L.Ed. 820 (1913), and the government failed to establish either of these conjunctive factual predicates below. ¹ Second, the government invokes Fed.R.Crim.P. 41, which provides for state court issuance of a federal search warrant "upon request of a federal law enforcement officer or an attorney for the government." Because the quoted condition in Rule 41 was not satisfied and the search was not otherwise "federal in character," see generally United States v. Bookout, 810 F.2d 965, 967 (10th Cir.1987); United States v. Gibbons, 607 F.2d 1320, 1325 (10th Cir.1979), the rule cannot serve to transform the illegal state search warrant into a legal federal one.

Accordingly, we hold that the search of defendant's property was not authorized by a valid warrant. Since the government does not argue that the constitutionality of the search may be upheld on some alternative basis, the evidence obtained through the search was not admissible in defendant's federal prosecution, absent the availability of an exception to the exclusionary rule. See United States v. Stone, 866 F.2d 359, 362 (10th Cir.1989) (citing Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960) for settled rule that evidence obtained by state officers in violation of fourth amendment strictures is inadmissible in a federal criminal trial).

The government contends that the exception established in United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984) and Massachusetts v. Sheppard, 468 U.S. 981, 104 S.Ct. 3424, 82 L.Ed.2d 737 (1984), permitting admission of evidence obtained pursuant to a defective search warrant so long as the officer(s) who obtained and executed the warrant acted in objective good faith, is applicable here and justifies admission of the evidence seized on defendant's premises. Defendant presents a two-level argument in response. First, defendant argues, Leon and Sheppard are not pertinent where, as here, the constitutional infirmity does not arise from either a defect in the warrant or the lack of probable cause, but rather from the issuing court's lack of jurisdiction to authorize the search in the first instance.

Although it is true, as defendant emphasizes, that Leon and Sheppard have been held inapplicable to most warrantless searches, see, e.g., United States v. Curzi, 867 F.2d 36, 44-45 (1st Cir.1989) and authorities cited therein, the case at bar, involving a warrant but one that was essentially void ab initio, appears to fall somewhere between the two poles occupied by the defective-warrant and absent-warrant cases. Neither party has cited any authority on point either for or against application of Leon and Sheppard to this situation, ² and we have found little. See Commonwealth v. Shelton, 766 S.W.2d 628, 629-30 (Ky.1989) (reading Leon as applicable only to "technically deficient" warrants and stating, "[w]e do not believe that Leon would be applicable [in context of jurisdictionally invalid warrant] were we otherwise inclined to follow its precedent"); id. at 630-31 (Gant, J., dissenting) (reading Leon as applicable to invalid warrants generally and arguing that, based on the deterrence considerations underlying the exclusionary rule and its good faith exception, the latter should be available in cases where the issuing court's jurisdiction is called into question); State v. Brady, 130 Wis.2d 443, 388 N.W.2d 151, 156-57 (1986) (Abrahamson, J., concurring) (maintaining that "this is not an appropriate case for deciding whether this court should adopt the Leon good faith exception to the exclusionary rule," precisely because "[i]t is not clear whether Leon and Sheppard apply ... to cases such as this one in which the magistrate has no authority whatsoever to issue the warrant"). While we acknowledge this issue that the parties have engaged, we do not purport to resolve it, as it is unnecessary to our disposition of this appeal. For even assuming the pertinence of Leon and Sheppard here, we agree with defendant's second line of argument that the government has not, in any event, satisfied the standard these cases impose. See generally, e.g., Brady, 130 Wis.2d 443, 388 N.W.2d 151, 156 (majority similarly electing not to resolve issue of Leon's applicability where requisite objective good faith lacking in any event).

Entitlement to the exception established in Leon and Sheppard depends on the objective good faith of the officer(s) applying for and executing the warrant. Thus, evidence obtained through an improper search will be excluded only if, under the objective circumstances presented to the officer(s) in question, "a reasonably well-trained officer would have known that the search was illegal despite the magistrate's authorization." Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 345, 106 S.Ct. 1092, 1098, 89 L.Ed.2d 271 (1986), quoting Leon, 468 U.S. at 922 n. 23, 104 S.Ct. at 3420 n. 23; see also Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3040, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987) (objective good faith determination encompasses information possessed by the particular officer(s) engaged in the challenged search). Here, the affidavit submitted by...