U.S. v. Garcia-Ruiz

• Decision Date: 27 October 2008
• Docket Number: No. 07-51269.,07-51269.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Noe GARCIA-RUIZ, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

546 F.3d 716 UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Noe GARCIA-RUIZ, Defendant-Appellant. No. 07-51269. United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit. October 27, 2008.

[546 F.3d 717]

Joseph H. Gay, Jr., Mark Randolph Stelmach, Asst. U.S. Attys., San Antonio, TX, for U.S.

M. Carolyn Fuentes, Henry Joseph Bemporad, Fed. Pub. Def., San Antonio, TX, for Defendant-Appellant.

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

Before JONES, Chief Judge, and GARWOOD and SMITH, Circuit Judges.

JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

Noe Garcia-Ruiz appeals his conviction on the ground that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress. We affirm.

I.

Garcia-Ruiz was charged with reentry into the United States as a deported alien in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326(1). Gary Rose, a deputy sheriff, stopped, detained, and turned Garcia-Ruiz over to Border Patrol agents in Sierra Blanca, Texas, a small town thirty miles from the Texas-Mexico border. It is also about four miles from the Sierra Blanca checkpoint on Interstate 10, which is used to detect illegal aliens, who had previously used the town and the surrounding area to circumvent the checkpoint.

David Arnold, a resident of Sierra Blanca, called the sheriff's office to report that he had "two illegals by his residence." Rose, who knew Arnold personally, proceeded to Arnold's trailer to investigate the call. When he arrived, Arnold's car was not near his trailer, and Rose quickly found Arnold driving on another street, following two men, one of whom was Garcia-Ruiz. Arnold pointed to the two men, and Rose pulled up behind them.

Rose had an intimate knowledge of Sierra Blanca, purporting to know all of its residents, and did not recognize the men. He asked them in English about their activities and identification but received no response. He asked the same questions in Spanish, to which the men responded that they had no identification and were coming from Mexico. Rose told them to get into his patrol truck and turned them over to Border Patrol agents at the sheriff's office.

II.

Garcia-Ruiz filed a motion to suppress all evidence obtained as a result of his detention and subsequent arrest, contending that under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968), Rose lacked reasonable suspicion when he stopped and detained Garcia-Ruiz. The court disagreed, finding that Rose had reasonable suspicion to initiate a Terry stop and to seize Garcia-Ruiz.

Garcia-Ruiz waived his right to a jury trial and agreed to a trial based on the following stipulated facts:

(1) that [Garcia-Ruiz] is a native and citizen of Mexico and his Alien Registration Number is A 98 561 955; (2) that [Garcia-Ruiz] was removed from the United States to Mexico on or about

546 F.3d 718

November 25, 2005, through El Paso, Texas; that Defendant agrees he is the same person who was removed from the United States on or about November 25, 2005; (3) that on April 5, 2007, [Garcia-Ruiz] was found by [Rose]...