U.S. v. Ramirez-Chilel

• Decision Date: 25 April 2002
• Docket Number: No. 00-16686.,00-16686.
• Citation: 289 F.3d 744
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Carlos Enrique RAMIREZ-CHILEL, a.k.a. Carlos-Enrique Ramirez-Chelel, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit

289 F.3d 744

UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. Carlos Enrique RAMIREZ-CHILEL, a.k.a. Carlos-Enrique Ramirez-Chelel, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 00-16686.

United States Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit.

April 25, 2002.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Brenda G. Bryn, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Kathleen M. Williams, Federal Public Defender, Miami, FL, for Defendant-Appellant.

Ann Marie Villafana, Anne Ruth Schultz, Laura Thomas Rivero, Harriet Galvin, Asst. U.S. Atty., Miami, FL, Diana M. Acosta, Fort Pierce, FL, for Plaintiff-Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

Before BIRCH and WILSON, Circuit Judges, and DOWD^*, District Judge.

WILSON, Circuit Judge:

Carlos Enrique Ramirez-Chilel was convicted of knowing possession with the intent to use and transfer unlawfully five or more false United States identification documents in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1) and (a)(3) and of knowing and unauthorized possession of blank immigration permits in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1546(a). Ramirez-Chilel now appeals the district court's decision to deny his motion to suppress all physical evidence seized from his bedroom on the night of March 15, 2000, as well as his post-arrest confession made later that night at the police station. Specifically, he argues that (1) the court made clearly erroneous credibility determinations as to who answered the door of the residence when the officers knocked; (2) the officers' initial entry into his residence was illegal; and (3) the subsequent search of his home and resulting post-arrest statement were both products of the unlawful entry and should have been excluded. We find that the district court's findings of fact were not clearly erroneous and that the law enforcement officers' entry into Ramirez-Chilel's home and subsequent search was legal. We therefore affirm.

BACKGROUND

At approximately 11:45 p.m. on March 15, 2000, Detectives Zealor and Hyde, both officers on the Treasure Coast Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Task Force, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) Investigator Guillan, and INS Agent Price proceeded to Ramirez-Chilel's trailer in Indian River County, Florida. The officers had received a tip that someone in that trailer was producing and selling counterfeit immigration and identification documents.¹ The officers had no probable cause to search the trailer and no search warrant, nor were there any exigent circumstances for approaching the residence at that hour. The officers were hoping they would be given consent to enter and search the premises when they arrived.

Guillan, Hyde, Price, and Zealor approached the residence shortly before midnight; the officers claim to have no particular reason for arriving at night other than wanting to follow up on a tip they had recently received. Guillan knocked on the door. What happened next is a subject of much dispute.

Both Hyde and Guillan testified at the suppression hearing that they approached Ramirez-Chilel's home without weapons drawn; Guillan knocked on the front door several times and announced in Spanish that they were police officers; the defendant Ramirez-Chilel, answered the door; Guillan spoke to Ramirez-Chilel in Spanish to request admittance "in order to determine whether or not there was any evidence of counterfeit documents or counterfeit immigration documents at that residence";² Ramirez-Chilel then "yield[ed] the right-of-way" to the officers and thus consented to their entry into the home; and, after signing a consent to search form, Ramirez-Chilel voluntarily consented to the search of the home.³

In their testimonies, Ramirez-Chilel and his girlfriend, Evinelli Pineda, described the events in a wholly different manner. They testified that the officers knocked loudly and announced themselves; Pineda's four-year-old son opened the door to the home; and the officers then stepped into the home and were already inside when Ramirez-Chilel emerged from his bedroom. Ramirez-Chilel testified at the hearing that Guillan spoke to him in Spanish and that he did not understand what Guillan was saying to him because Guillan was speaking both English and Spanish. Ramirez-Chilel did admit that Guillan asked if there were any guns or "bad things" in the residence and that he said no and told the officers they could go ahead and search because he knew he did not have any guns or "bad things" in the residence. Ramirez-Chilel claims that he signed some papers (i.e., the consent to search form) because Guillan said they had a right to search the trailer and he did not think that he had any choice.

When the officers searched the residence, they found counterfeit resident alien cards, counterfeit social security cards, photo residue in a garbage can, a plastic laminator, blank and completed birth certificates from Mexico, drivers' license and identification cards from the State of Kansas, and other items normally used in the production of counterfeit documents. After these items were found, Ramirez-Chilel was arrested, and Guillan then advised him of his Miranda rights⁴ in Spanish. According to Guillan, Ramirez-Chilel acknowledged that he understood his rights and told Guillan that the documents did not belong to him, but belonged to someone named Jorge Martinez. Ramirez-Chilel denies hearing his Miranda rights and denies ever telling Guillan that he prepared or sold false immigration or identification documents. He claims that he said that everything belonged to Martinez, and that Martinez was allowed to live at the trailer in 1999 when he went back to Guatemala for a period of time.

Ramirez-Chilel was then transported to the local DEA Drug Task Force Office in the St. Lucie County police station. He was read his Miranda rights again and signed the form. The form was in English and Guillan translated it into Spanish for Ramirez-Chilel. Thus, Guillan contends that Ramirez-Chilel voluntarily waived his Miranda rights and made a post-arrest statement. In the written statement, Ramirez-Chilel stated: "I bought the typewriter and the laminator from Office Depot in February, 1999. Jorge Martinez left me the counterfeits, for $800, because I thought it was good work for me." Ramirez-Chilel contends that after being arrested and taken to the sheriff's office, Guillan threatened to deport, kill, or send him to an island if he did not sign the confession, so he signed it.⁵

During the suppression hearing, the magistrate judge, faced with a fundamental credibility question, reviewed the testimony of each witness and made the following factual findings: (1) Ramirez-Chilel answered the door and consented to the officers' entry into his home; (2) Ramirez-Chilel voluntarily consented to the search of his home; and (3) Ramirez-Chilel voluntarily waived his Miranda rights and gave an admissible written statement.

The magistrate judge noted that the "motion boils down to essentially an issue of credibility." The magistrate judge focused on whether or not any threats of deportation and death were made — Pineda did not testify to hearing any threats and Guillan denied that threats were made. The magistrate judge also noted that both Pineda and Ramirez-Chilel were personally interested in suppressing the evidence, and that the officers did not have any vested interest in the case. Hyde did not work for the INS or any INS task force and was involved only to assist in locating the residence. Thus, the magistrate judge found the corroborating, consistent testimony of the officers more credible than that of the defendant and Pineda.

Next, the magistrate judge found Ramirez-Chilel's act of allowing the officers to enter by opening the door and stepping aside to be "properly interpreted by the law enforcement officers as consent to enter the trailer." After finding consent to enter the house, the magistrate judge then found voluntary consent to search because Guillan "meticulously read and re-read" the consent to search form, and Ramirez-Chilel signed it and later admitted to consenting to the search. The magistrate judge, rejecting Ramirez-Chilel's claims that threats were made, also found Ramirez-Chilel's written statement at the sheriff's office to be admissible because his Miranda rights were "meticulously read and re-read to the Defendant along with the questions and his responses" contained in the statement.

In light of these credibility determinations, the magistrate judge found no basis for suppressing either the physical evidence or the written statement. The district court, after specifically noting the magistrate judge's credibility determinations, adopted the report and recommendation. After a trial, the jury found Ramirez-Chilel guilty on both counts, and the district court sentenced him to forty-one months of imprisonment for each count to be served concurrently.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

A district court's ruling on a motion to suppress presents mixed questions of law and fact. United States v. Santa, 236 F.3d 662, 668 (11th Cir.2000). "We are required to accept the district court's factual findings as true" unless they are clearly erroneous, but the district court's application of the law to the facts is reviewed de novo. Id.

DISCUSSION

I.

Credibility determinations are typically the province of the fact finder because the fact finder personally observes the testimony and is thus in a better position than a reviewing court to assess the credibility of witnesses. Viehman v. Schweiker, 679 F.2d 223, 227-28 (11th Cir.1982). In fact, in a case such as this one, where the officers' testimonies are in direct conflict with Ramirez-Chilel's and Pineda's testimonies, various courts have held that a "trial judge's ... choice of whom to believe is conclusive on the appellate court unless the judge credits exceedingly improbable testimony." United States v. Cardona-Rivera, 904 F.2d 1149, 1152 (7th Cir.1990); see also United States v. Cooke, 915 F.2d 250, 252 (6th Cir.1990)...