U.S. v. Madrid

• Decision Date: 26 August 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-3959,97-3959
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Rene MADRID, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 1034

152 F.3d 1034

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Rene MADRID, Appellant.

No. 97-3959.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted June 9, 1998.

Decided Aug. 26, 1998.

Jana C. Werner, Santa Fe, New Mexico, argued, for Appellant.

Kandice A. Wilcox, Assistant United States Attorney, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, argued, for Appellee.

Before LOKEN, GODBOLD, ¹ and HEANEY, Circuit Judges.

HEANEY, Circuit Judge.

Rene Madrid appeals his drug convictions, arguing that evidence seized from his house was the fruit of an illegal search and was improperly received under the inevitable discovery doctrine. Because we decline to extend the inevitable discovery doctrine to the facts of this case, we reverse and remand for a new trial.

I.

On August 9, 1996, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Mid-Iowa Drug Task Force, and local law enforcement agencies prepared for the delivery of a kilogram each of methamphetamine and cocaine by Arturo Martinez to Special Agent Greg Brugman. Several agents and officers maintained surveillance of the operation. Just before the delivery, agents observed Martinez stopping at Madrid's home at 505 Harmon Street in Tama, Iowa. Madrid accompanied Martinez to a convenience store, the site of the planned drug transaction. Upon their arrival, Brugman told Madrid to go to the front of the store. Martinez then delivered two pounds of methamphetamine and twenty-two ounces of cocaine to Agent Brugman.

After the drug delivery, agents and officers arrested both Madrid and Martinez at approximately 12:42 p.m. Brugman transported Martinez back to Martinez's residence, where Brugman executed a search warrant at approximately 1:15 p.m. Brugman, Martinez, and several agents and officers were at the residence until 2:30 p.m. At some point after the arrest, but before the issuance of a search warrant for Madrid's house, Martinez agreed to cooperate with the police. Martinez told police that he obtained some of the methamphetamine earlier in the day from Madrid's home, he purchased controlled substances from Madrid's home on previous occasions, and he observed two more pounds of methamphetamine at Madrid's home. ²

At some point, Brugman anticipated obtaining a search warrant for Madrid's home. Rather than wait for the warrant, however, Brugman decided to secure Madrid's home. ³ Captain Bill Yount of the Linn County Sheriff's office was in charge of the search at Madrid's home. Without a warrant, approximately five to seven agents and officers entered the house at 2:15 p.m. They knocked on the door and a 15-year-old female overnight guest answered the door. At the suppression hearing, the guest testified that she did not believe that she had the authority to refuse their entry into the house. Police then entered Madrid's home and performed a "security sweep" to determine whether other individuals were present. In all, two young women, and two men were at Madrid's home. The other young woman was Madrid's fifteen year-old stepdaughter. The men were Madrid's brother and cousin, both of whom were Hispanic and neither of whom spoke English. When the agents and officers entered the home, the four occupants were not free to leave. After searching the cushions of a sofa in the living room, police officers searched the men, took their pictures, emptied their pockets into plastic bags marked "evidence," required them to sit in the living room, and did not permit them to talk to one another. Officers ordered the young women to sit in the dining room and did not permit them to answer the phone, make phone calls, talk to one another or go to the restroom without an escort. ⁴ At no time did any of the occupants give consent for the search of the house.

According to evidence offered by Madrid during his suppression hearing, before police officers obtained the search warrant, they went upstairs and to the basement two or three times, seeing two scales in "plain view," which the government later offered as evidence of drug transactions; they searched through mail and personal documents in the kitchen; and they looked through a notebook, which the government later offered as evidence of drug transactions. Sometime between 3:15 and 3:30 p.m. and before the warrant arrived, Robin Oaxaca, Madrid's wife, returned home from work and refused to consent to the search of the house. According to her testimony at the suppression hearing, Oaxaca said "[Y]ou wait for your warrant." "I'm a United States citizen, .... you just can't come in here and search my home and hold my children hostage." [Suppression Tr. at 165-66].

Scott French, a Cedar Rapids FBI agent who did not participate in the drug investigation, took information concerning the investigation over the telephone and prepared a search warrant for Madrid's house with the assistance of an Assistant United States Attorney (AUSA). The warrant application included information obtained from the warrantless entry into Madrid's house, namely, that a scale, scale weights, and a razor blade were "observed in plain view in the basement." The warrant application also contained the corroborating information obtained from Martinez to the effect that some of the drugs delivered to Brugman were obtained from Madrid's house and that Martinez had purchased controlled substances from Madrid's house on prior occasions. The magistrate received the warrant shortly after 4:00 p.m. and signed it at 4:20 p.m. The "official" search pursuant to the warrant commenced at 4:50 p.m.

Prior to trial, Madrid filed a motion to suppress, seeking to exclude from evidence all items obtained from the search of his house. The government argued that the exclusionary rule did not apply because exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry and the items seized would have been inevitably discovered through independent, legal means. The magistrate and the district court, in adopting the magistrate's report and recommendation, declined to address whether exigent circumstances justified the warrantless entry, but held that the evidence would have been inevitably discovered and admitted the items into evidence. Notably, the magistrate issuing the report and recommendation was the same magistrate who originally issued the warrant.

On June 6, 1997, a jury convicted Madrid of possession with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846. On September 25, 1997 the district court denied Madrid's motion for judgment of acquittal or for a new trial.

At sentencing on October 27, 1997, the district court calculated Madrid's base offense level at 32 under U.S.S.G. § 2D1.1 due to his involvement with over 100 grams of methamphetamine. The court imposed a two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice due to perjury committed at trial in the form of Madrid's denial of knowledge of the drug activity. Madrid's adjusted offense level was 34 and his criminal history category was I, resulting in a sentencing range of 151-188 months. The district court sentenced Madrid to 151 months of imprisonment, a $200 special assessment, and five years supervised release.

On appeal, Madrid argues that the trial court erred by (1) denying his motion to suppress evidence; (2) admitting certain evidence; (3) denying his motion for judgment of acquittal or a new trial; (4) assessing certain quantities of drugs to him at sentencing; (5) granting a two-level enhancement for perjury and denying safety valve credits and a minor role adjustment; and (6) denying his pro se motions challenging jurisdiction.

II.

"This Court will affirm the District Court's order denying the motion to suppress unless we find that the decision is unsupported by the evidence, based on an erroneous view of the law, or the Court is left with a firm conviction that a mistake has been made." United States v. Estrada, 45 F.3d 1215, 1217-18 (8th Cir.1995); see also Ornelas v. United States, 517 U.S. 690, 699, 116 S.Ct. 1657, 134 L.Ed.2d 911 (1996); United States v. Ball, 90 F.3d 260, 262 (8th Cir.1996).

The Fourth Amendment protects an individual's reasonable expectation of privacy from unauthorized intrusion. See Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 360, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967) (Harlan, J., concurring). Where an individual possesses a reasonable expectation of privacy--such as in his home--the government must generally obtain a warrant before conducting a search. The United States Supreme Court has stated: "Searches conducted outside the judicial process, without prior approval by judge or magistrate, are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment--subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions." Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128, 133 n. 4, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 110 L.Ed.2d 112 (1990) (quoting Katz, 389 U.S. at 357, 88 S.Ct. 507). It is quite clear in this case that the initial entry, seizure, and search of Madrid's house was conducted outside the judicial process and was, therefore, per se unreasonable unless the government is able to show that an exception applies.

"[T]he Fourth Amendment has drawn a firm line at the entrance to the house," Payton v. New York, 445 U.S. 573, 590, 100 S.Ct. 1371, 63 L.Ed.2d 639 (1980), and it "is designed to prevent, not simply to redress, unlawful police action." Chimel v. California, 395 U.S. 752, 766 n. 12, 89 S.Ct. 2034, 23 L.Ed.2d 685 (1969). Consequently, unless the government can show that the warrantless search was permissible under an exception to the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement, see Carter v. United States, 729 F.2d 935, 940 (8th Cir.1984), the exclusionary rule would bar the admission of evidence obtained from the warrantless search. See Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 648, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961) (citation omitted); Weeks v. United States,...