U.S. v. Pruett

• Citation: 501 F.3d 976
• Decision Date: 06 September 2007
• Docket Number: No. 06-3500.,06-3500.
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Steven Wayne PRUETT, Appellant.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (8th Circuit)

501 F.3d 976

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Steven Wayne PRUETT, Appellant.

No. 06-3500.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: April 10, 2007.

Filed: September 6, 2007.

Paul D. Scott, argued, Clive, IA, for appellant.

Benjamin J. Stansberry, Special AUSA, argued, Des Moines, IA, for appellee.

Before MELLOY, BOWMAN, and GRUENDER, Circuit Judges.

BOWMAN, Circuit Judge.

A jury convicted Steven Wayne Pruett on six criminal counts relating to the possession and distribution of methamphetamine. Pruett appeals, contending that the District Court¹ erred by: (1) admitting evidence derived from a search of his residence, (2) denying his motion to dismiss two counts allegedly filed in retaliation for his refusal to plead guilty, (3) denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal on the charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, (4) denying his motion for a new trial, and (5) submitting to the jury the charge of use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime. We affirm.

I.

On September 25, 2004, Deputy Jess Aesoph of the Monona County, Iowa, Sheriff's Department was told by a confidential informant (CI) that Pruett was in possession of a large amount of methamphetamine and had attempted to sell some of it to the CI the previous day. The CI stated that Pruett had been driving a blue Chevrolet pickup truck at the time of the attempted sale. The CI gave Deputy Aesoph directions for locating Pruett's residence on Ideal Avenue in Pisgah, Iowa.

Deputy Aesoph was familiar with Pruett from a previous traffic incident in which Pruett was driving a blue Chevrolet pickup truck. A vehicle records check confirmed that a blue Chevrolet truck was registered to Pruett. Deputy Aesoph also ran a check on Pruett's driver's license and discovered that two addresses were listed for Pruett in Pisgah—one of them on Ideal Avenue. To ensure that he had Pruett's correct residential address, Deputy Aesoph followed the directions given by the CI. The directions led him to a house on Ideal Avenue where a blue Chevrolet pickup truck was parked. Deputy Aesoph took photographs of the house and the truck. Deputy Aesoph also spoke with officers from the Harrison County, Iowa,² Sheriff's Department who confirmed the location of Pruett's residence.

On September 26, 2004, Deputy Aesoph applied for a warrant to search Pruett's residence at 104 Ideal Avenue in Pisgah, Iowa. A state magistrate judge issued the warrant, and Deputy Aesoph and Harrison County officers executed the warrant that day. During the search, officers found two firearms, 9.65 grams of methamphetamine, 3.96 grams of marijuana, and a digital scale.

On June 22, 2005, a six-count indictment was filed in the Southern District of Iowa charging Pruett with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine (Count 1), possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine (Count 2), possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime as charged in Counts 1 and 2 (Count 3), possession of a firearm by an unlawful user of a controlled substance (Count 4), and two counts of distribution of methamphetamine to a person under twenty-one years of age (Counts 5 and 6). Pruett was arrested on June 27, 2005. At the arraignment, an Assistant United States Attorney informed Pruett's counsel that additional charges were being investigated. On July 22, 2005, a superseding indictment was filed, adding charges of distribution of methamphetamine (Count 7) and use of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime (Count 8).

Pruett filed a motion to suppress evidence derived from the search of his residence and a motion to dismiss Counts 7 and 8. The District Court denied both motions, and the case proceeded to trial. On March 9, 2006, a jury found Pruett guilty on Counts 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, and 8, and not guilty on Counts 3 and 5. After denying Pruett's motion for a judgment of acquittal or a new trial, the District Court sentenced Pruett to a term of 168 months' imprisonment.

II.

Pruett's first argument on appeal is that the District Court erred by failing to suppress evidence obtained from the search of his residence. Pruett asserts that the search warrant application failed to establish probable cause that evidence of a crime would be found at his residence. The District Court declined to make a determination as to probable cause, ruling instead that even assuming probable cause was lacking, the good-faith exception to the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule applied and the evidence was admissible. See United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 921-22, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984) (establishing the good-faith exception). In reviewing a district court's denial of a suppression motion, we review factual findings for clear error and legal conclusions de novo. United States v. Rodriguez, 484 F.3d 1006, 1010 (8th Cir.2007).

If the District Court was correct in concluding that the Leon good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule applies, it is unnecessary for us to engage in a probable-cause analysis. See Rodriguez, 484 F.3d at 1011. We therefore choose to begin by reviewing the District Court's application of the Leon exception. Under Leon, "the Fourth Amendment exclusionary rule is not to be applied to exclude the use of evidence obtained by officers acting in reasonable reliance on a detached and neutral magistrate judge's determination of probable cause in the issuance of a search warrant that is ultimately found to be invalid." United States v. Hessman, 369 F.3d 1016, 1020 (8th Cir.2004) (internal quotations and citations omitted), cert. denied, 543 U.S. 1072, 125 S.Ct. 917, 160 L.Ed.2d 809 (2005). The Leon exception recognizes that "the exclusionary rule is designed to deter police misconduct rather than to punish the errors of judges and magistrates." Leon, 468 U.S. at 916, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Thus, evidence seized in carrying out a search warrant should not be suppressed on account of an absence of probable cause when an officer's reliance on the warrant is objectively reasonable. Hessman, 369 F.3d at 1020. The Leon exception does not apply, however, in four circumstances: (1) when "the issuing magistrate wholly abandoned his judicial role," (2) when the warrant is "based on an affidavit `so lacking in indicia of probable cause as to render official belief in its existence entirely unreasonable,'" (3) when the warrant is "so facially deficient . . . that the executing officers cannot reasonably presume it to be valid," and (4) when the issuing magistrate was misled by false information in an affidavit that the affiant knowingly or recklessly included. Leon, 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405 (citations omitted). Pruett contends that these circumstances are present here, making the Leon exception inapplicable and requiring the suppression of evidence obtained from the search of his residence. After reviewing the actions of the magistrate and the police officers in this case, we disagree and conclude that the Leon exception applies.

A.

First, Pruett asserts that the magistrate who issued the warrant abandoned his neutral and detached role by ratifying the uncorroborated statements of Deputy Aesoph without performing a proper probable-cause analysis. In support of this theory, Pruett points to the magistrate's mischaracterization of the CI as a "peace officer" in the endorsement attached to the warrant and the magistrate's issuance of the warrant despite "the facially obvious defects in the [warrant] Application." Appellant's Am. Br. at 11. Pruett further contends that the magistrate did not follow Iowa law requiring a magistrate issuing a search warrant to include an "abstract of each witness' testimony" upon which the magistrate relied. Iowa Code § 808.3 (2005).

Although the magistrate mistakenly identified the CI as a "peace officer" in the endorsement of the warrant, it appears that at that point in the endorsement the magistrate was describing the affiant and simply wrote the wrong word. This conclusion is supported by the fact that the magistrate identified the CI as a "concerned citizen" in the next section of the endorsement. While this mistake may show carelessness, it does not demonstrate the abandonment of the magistrate's neutral and detached role. Nor do the minor facial defects on the warrant application, discussed below, suggest that the magistrate abandoned his judicial role. We further give little credence to Pruett's argument, raised for the first time on appeal and thus evaluated under the plain-error standard,³ that the magistrate violated state law in issuing the warrant. While Iowa Code section 808.3 generally requires the magistrate to include an abstract of a witness's testimony or a witness's affidavit,⁴ section 808.3 makes a specific exception when probable cause is based on information supplied by a confidential informant: "[I]f the grounds for issuance are supplied by an informant, the magistrate shall identify only the peace officer to whom the information was given." Iowa Code § 808.3 (2005). Here, the warrant was issued in reliance on the information provided by a CI to Deputy Aesoph, and Deputy Aesoph was properly identified in the warrant. In short, we find "no indication that the magistrate was biased or impartial, nor is there any evidence of a pattern of passive, automatic issuance of warrants." United States v. Hallam, 407 F.3d 942, 946 (8th Cir.2005). We cannot conclude that the magistrate "wholly abandoned his judicial role." Leon, 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405.

B.

Next, Pruett contends that the warrant application⁵ was so deficient that the officers executing the warrant could not have had an objectively reasonable belief in the existence of probable cause.⁶ See Leon, 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405. Again, we disagree. The affidavit submitted with the warrant application recounted that a CI advised Deputy Aesoph that he had seen Pruett the previous day in possession of "a ball of methamphetamine...