United States v. Paulette, Case No. 14-CR-30152-1-NJR
| Decision Date | 03 August 2015 |
| Docket Number | Case No. 14-CR-30152-1-NJR |
| Parties | UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. AYIKO L. PAULETTE, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Illinois |
This matter is before the Court on the Motion to Suppress Statements (Doc. 225) and the Motion to Suppress Physical Evidence (Doc. 226) filed by Defendant Ayiko Paulette. In these motions, Ayiko Paulette seeks to suppress statements he made to law enforcement officers at the St. Louis Amtrak station on July 8, 2014, as well as evidence recovered from the searches of three different homes. After the motions were fully briefed, an evidentiary hearing was held on July 15, 2015. At the hearing, Carlos Coleman, a detective with the East St. Louis, Illinois Police Department, and Duane Clauer, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, provided testimony regarding the searches and seizures at issue. The Court has fully considered the briefs and documentary evidence submitted by the parties as well as the testimony provided at the hearing. For the reasons set forth below, both motions to suppress are denied.
This story begins with a late night shoot-out on March 18, 2013, in the area of a house at 2208 Saint Clair Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois. That house is owned by Defendant Ayiko Paulette.1 At around 10:30 p.m., officers from the East St. Louis Police Department responded to a report of gunshots at 746 North 23rd Street, which is approximately one block behind Paulette's home.2 Stephanie Johnson, the occupant of that home, reported that she heard ten to fifteen gunshots and two bullets entered her bedroom window. Within the next half hour, officers received notice from St. Louis-area hospitals that two individuals had arrived with gunshot wounds. The first individual,Dandre Easley, told police that he was shot while sitting in his car in the same block as Stephanie Johnson's house (Docs. 226, 239-1). The second individual, Ricky Johnson, told police that he was shot near the intersection of Summit Avenue and North 22nd Street, which is also approximately one block behind Paulette's home (Docs. 226, 239-1).3
The next morning, at approximately 8:10 a.m., East St. Louis police officers responded to a report of property damage at 836 North 22nd Street,4 which is located around the corner from Paulette's home (Docs. 226, 239-1).5 Hattie Allen reported that her car, which was parked on the street in front of her house, had been struck by gunfire the night before. The officers also observed bullet holes in her home. Using trajectory rods, a Crime Scene Technician ("CST") from the Illinois State Police determined that the gunshots "most likely originated" from Ayiko Paulette's home at 2208 Saint Clair Avenue (Doc. 239-1). At that point, Detective Carlos Coleman was ordered to respond to the scene. He arrived with Detective Orlando Ward at approximately 11:00 a.m.
The officers walked over to Paulette's home where they observed bullet holes in a vehicle parked in the driveway and numerous shell casings in the yard and driveway (Doc. 239-1; Government's Exhibits 5, 6). They observed at least four shell casings on the steps leading up to the back porch, and four more on the back porch itself (seeGovernment's Exhibits 6-11). They also observed numerous drops of blood, a much larger spot of blood that had dripped onto the step below,6 and bloody footprints that appeared to lead into the home (see Government's Exhibits 6-11).
The officers knocked on the door of the home, but no one responded. Believing that an injured person may be inside the home, the officers entered the home through a window that had been left partially open.7 Once inside the home, the officers observed in plain view weapons, shell casings, a bulletproof vest, marijuana, and what was described at the hearing as a "massive amount of blood" (Doc. 239-1). The CST also observed bullet holes in a metal door, which indicated that shots had been fired from inside the home. Detective Coleman testified that after they checked the residence and confirmed that no one was inside, they immediately left the premises.
Detective Coleman then applied for a search warrant for the Saint Clair Avenue house in the Circuit Court of St. Clair County, Illinois (Doc. 239-1). The warrant was issued at 1:14 p.m. on March 19, 2013 (Id.), and executed the same day. The police recovered 118 shell casings from the home and property around the home (Doc. 239-2, p. 9). The police also recovered six firearms, ammunition, cocaine and marijuana, eighteen cell phones, five walkie-talkies, and two laptop computers from inside the home (Id.).
A year after the shootout, in April 2014, ATF agents met with a confidential informant ("CI") who had a history with Ayiko Paulette (Doc. 239-2, p. 10). According to the CI, Paulette was one of the leaders of a street gang in East St. Louis known as the "Waverly Crips" (Id.). The CI stated that he began purchasing cocaine on a weekly basisfrom Paulette in January 2007 (Id.). The CI further stated that he introduced Paulette to a cocaine source in Las Vegas in May 2007 (Id.). On more than one occasion, the CI traveled to Las Vegas with Paulette to purchase cocaine (Id.). The CI explained that he taught Paulette to transport the cocaine back to East St. Louis by making "diapers" (Id. at pp. 10, 15). They would put the cocaine in vacuum sealed bags, wrap the bags in black tape, and fit them on females like a "giant maxi-pad" (Id.).
By the time the CI spoke with ATF agents in April 2014, he was buying cocaine from Paulette every two to three days (Doc. 239-2, p. 11). He also occasionally bought heroin from Paulette (Id.). The CI explained that he would text message Paulette at 314-717-7343 to arrange a meet-up, Paulette would front him the drugs, and the CI would repay Paulette after the cocaine was sold (Id. at p. 11). The agents corroborated the CI's information by conducting two controlled buys between the CI and Paulette in May 2014 (Id. at pp. 11, 12-13). After each controlled buy, the agents followed Paulette back to a house at 4007 North 11th Street in St. Louis, Missouri, which agents later came to believe was his primary residence (Id. at pp. 12, 13).
That same month, the agents also began collecting precision location information ("PLI") on Paulette's cell phone with the number 314-717-7343 (Doc. 239-2, p. 12). Using the PLI, the agents continuously monitored Paulette's location. On July 5, 2014, the PLI indicated that the cell phone traveled from St. Louis to Texas (Id. at p. 14). Specifically, at 5:00 p.m. on July 5, the phone was at a Wal-Mart store in Fort Worth, Texas (Id.). The phone then traveled to Irving, Texas, where it arrived at the Westin Hotel at approximately 6:38 p.m. (Id.). The phone remained at the Westin Hotel for the rest of thenight and most of the next day, until approximately 6:24 p.m. on July 6 (Id.). At that time, the phone left the Westin Hotel, and it arrived at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Arlington, Texas, approximately 50 minutes later (Id.).
Suspicious of Paulette's trip to Texas, the agents began investigating. Agent Duane Clauer spoke with the CI and asked whether Paulette had drug sources in Texas (Doc. 239-2, p. 14). The CI indicated that Paulette had family in Houston and the Arlington/Fort Worth area, and the CI suspected that they provided Paulette with drugs (Id. at pp. 14-15). The CI further indicated that Paulette was currently "out of cocaine" and that he would likely be bringing back a "load" if he was in Texas, perhaps by using "diapers" (Id. at p. 15).
An ATF agent from the field office in Dallas went to both hotels to get information about the room reservations and who stayed in the rooms. At the Crowne Plaza hotel, the agent learned that Ayiko Paulette reserved two rooms on the night of July 6 in his name (Doc. 239-2, p. 14). Surveillance footage shows Paulette and Rochelle Coker at the reception desk checking into the hotel (Id.). The rooms were put in Rochelle Coker's name, and Paulette paid for the rooms in cash (Id.). Ten people total stayed in the two rooms, and the agent got photos of those individuals from the surveillance footage (Id.). Two vans from the hotel took those ten people to the Amtrak station in Dallas on July 7 (Id.). In other words, Ayiko Paulette was on a bus back to St. Louis within 48 hours after arriving in Texas.
Upon learning that Ayiko Paulette and his party were headed for the Amtrak station, Agent Clauer contacted an Amtrak detective and obtained a passengermanifesto for the train from Dallas to St. Louis (Doc. 239-2, p. 15). Ayiko Paulette's name was on the manifesto along with nine other names that Agent Clauer recognized as either family, friends, or acquaintances of Paulette's, including his daughter and her mother, Rochelle Coker (Id. at pp. 15-16).
At that point, Agent Clauer decided to meet the train in St. Louis. It was scheduled to arrive at the St. Louis Amtrak station at 7:30 a.m. on July 8. Agent Clauer testified that approximately twenty to thirty law enforcement officials, including ATF agents, DEA agents, St. Louis City police officers, and an Amtrak Detective, were waiting in the terminal to check the IDs of everyone who got off the train.8 They also had a narcotics detection dog to indicate whether any of the people or bags coming off the train contained drugs.
Rochelle Coker was the first member of Ayiko Paulette's party to get off the train. Agents asked to see her ID and her ticket stub, which she provided. Agent Clauer testified that she "was nervous." And the narcotics dog indicated on her bag, which prompted the agents to "detain" all ten individuals. As they each stepped off the train, they were asked for their IDs and "escorted" into a private room ("the detention room").9
Ayiko Paulette contends that he was in the detention room for over an hour (Doc.225, p. 1). According to...
To continue reading
Request your trial