U.S. v. Chaidez

• Decision Date: 29 June 1990
• Docket Number: No. 89-1634,89-1634
• Citation: 906 F.2d 377
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Amador Rodriguez CHAIDEZ, a/k/a Rodriguez Amador Chaidez and Amador Rodriguez, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 377

906 F.2d 377

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Amador Rodriguez CHAIDEZ, a/k/a Rodriguez Amador Chaidez and Amador Rodriguez, Appellant.

No. 89-1634.

United States Court of Appeals Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Sept. 13, 1989.

Decided June 29, 1990.

Susan Felicia Spence, Springfield, Mo., for appellant.

Richard E. Monroe, Springfield, Mo., for appellee.

Before JOHN R. GIBSON and WOLLMAN, Circuit Judges, and ROSS, Senior Circuit Judge.

JOHN R. GIBSON, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Amador Rodriguez Chaidez of violating 21 U.S.C. Sec. 841(a)(1) (1988) by knowingly possessing cocaine with the intent to distribute it. On appeal, Chaidez contends that the district court ¹ should have suppressed both cocaine found in the car that Chaidez was driving and statements he made while in custody. This appeal presents three questions: (1) Did Chaidez voluntarily consent to the search of his car?; (2) If so, was the cocaine discovered during a search that was within either the scope of that consent or one of the other exceptions to the warrant requirement?; and (3) Were Chaidez's inculpatory statements obtained in violation of his Fifth Amendment rights? After considering these questions, we affirm the judgment of the district court.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Jack McMullin stopped Chaidez for driving seventy-nine miles-per-hour in a fifty-five mile-per-hour zone on Interstate Highway 44 near Springfield, Missouri. Suppression Hearing Order p 4. Chaidez produced a Texas Driver's License that identified him as a resident of El Paso, Texas. Id. p 6. McMullin and Chaidez then went to the Trooper's patrol car. In response to a question from McMullin, Chaidez said that he was going to Chicago. McMullin had not seen any clothes in the car driven by Chaidez, and he thought that someone who was traveling from Texas to Chicago would take clothes with them. Therefore, McMullin asked whether Chaidez had brought any clothes on the trip. Chaidez responded by stating that he had some clothes in the trunk of his car. "McMullin [then] asked the defendant if it would be okay for him to look in the car," and Chaidez started to get out of the patrol car. Id. p 8. McMullin asked Chaidez to stay in the car, completed the appropriate sections of a search consent form, and handed it to Chaidez. Chaidez "immediately started to sign the form," but was stopped by McMullin, who told Chaidez to read the form before signing it. Id. p 9. McMullin thought that Chaidez examined the form for a time "long enough ... to have read it" before signing it. Id. Although McMullin noticed that Chaidez spoke with a Spanish accent, and although one side of the consent form contained a Spanish translation of its text, McMullin showed Chaidez only the English side of the form. Id. p 10.

After signing the form, Chaidez opened the car's trunk, which contained a duffel bag full of clothes. While inspecting the trunk, McMullin noticed that the back portion of the rear passenger seat, which abutted the trunk, looked as if it had been removed and replaced. Id. p 12. He then opened one of the car's doors and examined the area near the back seat. Id. There, he observed some loose or missing screws in the car's back seat and rear panels, and he concluded that the seat's bottom cushion was raised above its normal position. Id.

McMullin then put his hand under the rear seat and felt a brick-shaped object which was taped to the bottom of the seat. Id. p 13. When he removed the object from underneath the seat, he perceived a white residue, which he thought was cocaine, on the package. Id.

McMullin placed Chaidez under arrest and read him Miranda warnings from a printed card. Id. p 14; see Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436, 86 S.Ct. 1602, 16 L.Ed.2d 694 (1966). Chaidez and his car were then taken to the Headquarters of State Patrol Troop D in Springfield, Missouri. Suppression Hearing Order p 15. At the Headquarters, McMullin searched inside the car's rear side panels and underneath its rear seat; the search produced fifty bricks of cocaine, each with a mass of approximately one kilogram. Id. p 16, 17.

At the Troop D Headquarters, Chaidez was questioned for approximately one hour, in English, by Highway Patrol Sergeant John J. Bickers and by a special agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Neither investigator reminded Chaidez of his Fifth Amendment rights. Id. p 18, 19, 20.

When the interview concluded, Trooper McMullin and Highway Patrol Sergeant Jack Merritt took Chaidez to the jail in Greene County, Missouri. During the trip, which took approximately fifteen minutes, Sergeant Merritt, who was dressed in civilian clothes and was unarmed, asked how much Chaidez had been paid to drive the car carrying the cocaine. Id. p 20. When Chaidez said that he had received $2,500, Sergeant Merritt expressed his surprise that Chaidez had been paid such a meager sum to transport such a large amount of cocaine. Chaidez then stated that he thought that the car had contained only seven kilograms of cocaine. Id.

At the suppression hearing, both Chaidez and the Government presented evidence concerning Chaidez's comprehension of written English. Although Chaidez stipulated that he "can communicate orally in English," id. p 27, the defense presented evidence that Chaidez had, at best, a limited ability to understand written English. The Government, in contrast, argued that Chaidez was merely feigning an inability to read English.

Chaidez testified that he could not read English, and a deacon at Chaidez's church said that Chaidez had repeatedly asked for assistance in filling out various legal forms written in English. Id. p 24. Furthermore, Chaidez's brother stated that, in his opinion Chaidez could not read English. Id. p 26. Several other witnesses also testified that they did not think that Chaidez could read English.

For the Government, a Missouri State Probation Officer testified that he had seen Chaidez reading a document and that Chaidez's attorney told Chaidez to stop reading because Chaidez's defense was based, in part, upon the argument that he could not read English. Id. p 21. The prosecution also introduced a legal pleading that Chaidez had written in English. Id. p 32. Chaidez testified, however, that he had merely copied the words from a pleading written by someone else and that he did not understand what the document said. As proof that he had acted merely as a scrivener, Chaidez correctly noted that the two pleadings contained identically misspelled words. Id. p 31.

The district court found that Chaidez's "comprehension of the English language is sufficient for him to have given an informed, knowledgeable, and voluntary oral consent to search the vehicle," and that he "voluntarily allowed the officer to view the interior of the automobile's trunk." Id. p 33. The court made no findings concerning whether Chaidez could read English or whether McMullin reasonably thought that Chaidez could read English.

The district court rejected Chaidez's Fifth Amendment argument. The court found both that McMullin had read the Miranda warnings to Chaidez, id. p 14, and that Chaidez's statements were not "made under threat of physical harm or any other type of coercion," id. p 29. After the jury convicted Chaidez, the district court imposed a special assessment of $50 and sentenced Chaidez to a prison term of twenty years, to be followed by ten years of supervised release.

I.

Even when police officers have neither probable cause nor a warrant, they may search an area if they obtain a voluntary consent from someone possessing adequate authority over the area. United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164, 171 & n. 7, 94 S.Ct. 988, 993 & n. 7, 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974); Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 222, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 2045, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973). Moreover, a voluntary consent need not amount to a waiver; consent can be voluntary without being an "intentional relinquishment or abandonment of a known right or privilege." Id. at 235, 93 S.Ct. at 2052 (quoting Johnson v. Zerbst, 304 U.S. 458, 464, 58 S.Ct. 1019, 1023, 82 L.Ed. 1461 (1938)). Rather, the proper test is whether the totality of the circumstances demonstrates that the consent was voluntary. See id. at 226, 93 S.Ct. at 2047. In deciding whether a consent was voluntary, courts should require the prosecution to prove voluntariness by a preponderance of the evidence. See Matlock, 415 U.S. at 177, 94 S.Ct. at 996.

The district court found both "that [Chaidez's] comprehension of the English language is sufficient for him to have given an informed, knowledgeable, and voluntary oral consent to search the vehicle[,]" and "that [he] voluntarily allowed the officer to view the interior of the automobile's trunk." Suppression Hearing Order p 33. We review those conclusions under the clearly erroneous standard. United States v. Archer, 840 F.2d 567, 573 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 941, 109 S.Ct. 365, 102 L.Ed.2d 354 (1988). Thus, we will "affirm the trial court's decision unless it is not supported by substantial evidence, it evolves from an erroneous conception of the applicable law, or we are left with a firm conviction that a mistake has been made after having considered the entire record." United States v. Ware, 890 F.2d 1008, 1011 (8th Cir.1989) (quoting United States v. Wallraff, 705 F.2d 980, 987 (8th Cir.1983)).

Chaidez's consent was voluntary if it was "the product of an essentially free and unconstrained choice by its maker," Bustamonte, 412 U.S. at 225, 93 S.Ct. at 2047, rather than "the product of duress or coercion, express or implied." Id. at 227, 93 S.Ct. at 2047. This determination depends upon the totality of the circumstances in a particular case, including "both the characteristics of the accused and the details of the interrogation." Id. at 226, 93 S.Ct. at 2047.

The following characteristics of persons giving consent are relevant when assessing the voluntariness of their...