U.S. v. Miguel

• Decision Date: 27 May 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-10217.,No. 03-10218.,03-10217.,03-10218.
• Citation: 368 F.3d 1150
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Leigh Christina MIGUEL, Defendant-Appellant. United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Norman Jeremiah Johnson, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 1150

368 F.3d 1150

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Leigh Christina MIGUEL, Defendant-Appellant.

United States of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Norman Jeremiah Johnson, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 03-10217.

No. 03-10218.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted December 1, 2003.

Filed May 27, 2004.

Rubin Slater, Jr., Tucson, AZ, for defendant-appellant Leigh Christina Miguel.

Harriette P. Levitt, Tucson, AZ, for defendant-appellant Norman Jeremiah Johnson.

Serra M. Tsethlikai, Assistant United States Attorney, Tucson, AZ, for plaintiff-appellee United States of America.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona; Frank R. Zapata, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CR-02-01436-FRZ.

Before: O'SCANNLAIN, HAWKINS and FISHER, Circuit Judges.

FISHER, Circuit Judge:

On a hot summer day in July 2002, with temperatures over 100 degrees, Leigh Miguel and her uncle, Norman Johnson, were caught smuggling a group of five Mexican children and young adults in a four-door Dodge Stratus near Tucson, Arizona. Miguel had been pulled over by two sheriff's deputies who may have mistakenly believed the car's registration had expired. The five illegal immigrants, all from the same family and whose ages ranged from 4 to 19 years old, were lying unrestrained on the folded-down back seat and in the connecting trunk. One of the children, a five-year-old boy, was unconscious and unresponsive when first discovered. The defendants pled guilty to conspiring to transport illegal aliens, transporting illegal aliens for financial gain and placing in jeopardy the lives of illegal aliens. At sentencing, the district court enhanced Miguel's and Johnson's sentences based on three criteria: (1) intentionally or recklessly creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily harm under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual ("U.S.S.G.") § 2L1.1(b)(5) (2002); (2) actual bodily injury to the five-year-old boy under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(b)(6) (2002); and (3) vulnerability of the victims under U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1(b)(1) (2002).

On appeal, Miguel and Johnson challenge the legality of the stop as well as their sentence enhancements. We affirm the judgments and the sentences. We hold that if the deputies were mistaken in believing that the vehicle registration had expired, their mistake was one of fact due to their reasonable reliance on the expiration date in a computer database. We also hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in enhancing the defendants' sentences for recklessly creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily harm, because their vehicle was carrying more passengers than its rated capacity, the passengers were lying down without any restraints and the three youngest were crammed together in the trunk on a very hot day. Furthermore, even if the five-year-old's condition was caused in part from having trekked through the desert before Johnson and Miguel put him in the car, they were accountable because the harm came from reasonably foreseeable actions taken to further the jointly undertaken illegal smuggling operation. Finally, we hold that at least the young children were vulnerable victims because they did not fully appreciate the dangers involved in illegal immigrant smuggling.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Miguel and Johnson had arranged to pick up a group of illegal immigrants near Fresnal Village on the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation and take them to Eloy, Arizona for money. A smuggler known as "El Chano" had agreed to pick up the illegal immigrants in Mexico and guide them across the border. The group of illegal immigrants, all from the same family, consisted of two young adults, ages 17 and 19, and three young children, ages 4, 5 and 7. The group walked with the guide across the desert for approximately two days and had run out of water. Once they arrived at the predesignated pick up location, they waited for about three hours until Miguel and Johnson arrived in Miguel's Dodge Stratus. The 17-year-old and 19-year-old piled on top of the back seat, which Johnson had pushed down. The three youngsters squeezed into the trunk space of the car with their heads towards the car's interior. The temperature outside was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Although the air conditioning cooled the front of the car, the trunk area remained hot. Miguel had a water bottle in the front seat but did not give the children any water.

After Miguel had been driving for about 45 minutes, Deputies Schilb and Renteria of the Pima County Sheriff's Department spotted Miguel's vehicle. As part of a routine check, Schilb ran the car's license plate number through a computer connected to the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department's database. The computer showed the license registration as having expired on July 15, 2002, so the deputies stopped the vehicle for what they believed was an expired registration. Subsequently, it was established at the suppression hearing that Miguel had purchased registration for the vehicle only a week before the stop, and her registration tags did not expire until September 2003.

Border Patrol agents arrived shortly after the stop. They removed the children from the vehicle but were unable to wake the five-year-old boy. His eyes were open but rolled back in his head. The agents called the paramedics, who gave him oxygen and hydrated him until he was taken by an ambulance to the hospital. The other two young children were also taken to the hospital for evaluation. All three were released on the same day to Child Protective Services.

Miguel and Johnson were arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for financial gain in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(v)(I), (a)(1)(A)(ii), (a)(1)(B)(i); three counts of transportation of an illegal alien for financial gain and placing in jeopardy the life of an alien in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii), (a)(1)(B)(i), (a)(1)(B)(iii); and two counts of transportation of an illegal alien for financial gain in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii), (a)(1)(B)(i). After the defendants moved unsuccessfully to suppress the evidence obtained from the allegedly illegal stop, they pled guilty through written plea agreements.

At sentencing, the district court imposed a 6-level enhancement for both Miguel and Johnson under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(b)(5), finding that the offense involved intentionally or recklessly creating a substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury. The court also levied a 2-level enhancement under U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(b)(6) for bodily injury to the five-year-old boy. Lastly, the court made a 2-level upward adjustment because it found that the children, especially the five-year-old boy, were vulnerable victims under U.S.S.G. § 3A1.1(b)(1). Miguel and Johnson filed timely appeals. We consolidated their appeals and now affirm.

II. LEGALITY OF THE TRAFFIC STOP

A police officer needs "only reasonable suspicion in the context of investigative traffic stops." United States v. Lopez-Soto, 205 F.3d 1101, 1105 (9th Cir.2000). "Reasonable suspicion is formed by specific, articulable facts which, together with objective and reasonable inferences, form the basis for suspecting that the particular person detained is engaged in criminal activity." Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). We review de novo the district court's determination of whether there was reasonable suspicion. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 275, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002).

We have distinguished between mistakes of fact and mistakes of law when an officer has initiated a traffic stop based on a mistaken belief. "[I]f an officer makes a traffic stop based on a mistake of law, the stop violates the Fourth Amendment." United States v. Twilley, 222 F.3d 1092, 1096 (9th Cir.2000). For example, in United States v. King, 244 F.3d 736 (9th Cir.2001), the officer stopped a car with a placard hanging from the rearview mirror, which he believed was unlawful. Id. at 737-38. Construing the traffic ordinance, we concluded that placing an object in close proximity but not directly on the windshield did not violate the traffic ordinance. Id. at 740. Thus, we held that the officer made a mistake of law and did not have reasonable suspicion to stop the vehicle. Id. at 741-42.

In contrast, "[a] mere mistake of fact will not render a stop illegal, if the objective facts known to the officer gave rise to a reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot." United States v. Mariscal, 285 F.3d 1127, 1131 (9th Cir.2002). "[A]n officer's correct understanding of the law, together with a good-faith error regarding the facts, can establish reasonable suspicion." King, 244 F.3d at 739. For instance, in United States v. Dorais, 241 F.3d 1124 (9th Cir.2001), we held that an officer's mistaken belief that a rental car was "overdue" was a mistake of fact. Id. at 1131. The defendant had rented a car in Hawaii from Dollar Rent-a-Car at 8:23 p.m. on July 4, 1998 and was supposed to return the car at the same time two days later. Id. at 1127. Hawaii law provides that a person who fails to return a rental car within 48 hours after the time stated in the rental agreement commits a misdemeanor. Id. at 1131; see also Haw.Rev.Stat. § 708-837 (2004). By July 8, the defendant had not returned the car, and Dollar notified the police at 10 a.m. that the car was "overdue." Id. at 1127. Thereafter, the officers stopped the rental car between 10:30 a.m. and 12 p.m. later that day. Id. Legally, though, the car was not overdue because the full 48-hour grace period had not elapsed. The court stated,"[T]he officers here stopped [the defendant] not because of a mistaken understanding of the law, but because of a mistake of fact. The officers correctly understood that Hawaii law criminalizes the possession of a rental car more than 48 hours beyond its return time; the officers simply made a mistake of fact as...