United States v. Ramirez

• Decision Date: 26 April 2012
• Docket Number: No. 10–3648.,10–3648.
• Citation: 676 F.3d 755
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Carlos RAMIREZ, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

676 F.3d 755

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,

v.Carlos RAMIREZ, Appellant.

No. 10–3648.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

Submitted: Nov. 15, 2011.Filed: April 26, 2012.

Wesley Scott Dodge, argued, Omaha, NE, for Appellant.

Nancy A. Svoboda, AUSA, argued, Omaha, NE, for Appellee.

Before RILEY, Chief Judge, BEAM, and BYE, Circuit Judges.

BEAM, Circuit Judge.

Carlos Ramirez appeals from the district court's denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained during a hotel room raid by officers in Omaha, Nebraska, in June 2009. Because we conclude that there were no exigent circumstances sufficient to justify the warrantless entry, we reverse.

I. BACKGROUND

On June 29, 2009, officers conducting surveillance at the Greyhound bus terminal in Omaha arrested Juan Perez and Juan Amaya–Armenta carrying heroin in their shoes. Perez informed officers that he was traveling with a third male wearing a dark shirt with a white logo, who also had heroin in his shoes. Following the arrests, the officers tried to uncover additional evidence to locate this third man and identified and removed several bags from under the bus. They then attempted to locate the owners of the retrieved bags by approaching the bus passengers, but nobody claimed ownership. A search of the abandoned bags uncovered an identification card belonging to Hector Cruz. The investigators spoke to the bus driver who reported that he was missing five passengers, two of whom the officers determined were the already-arrested men. The officers were then able to obtain the ticket information for the remaining three, identifying Luis Ibarra–Penuelas, Hector Cruz, and Ramirez.

From the ticket information, officers learned that Ramirez and Ibarra–Penuelas were traveling from San Diego to Newark, on cash, one-way tickets, purchased in much the same fashion Perez and Amaya–Armenta—who also were traveling on cash, one-way tickets, purchased about the same time or within minutes of each other. Cruz traveled in a similar fashion on a nearly identical route with a ticket purchased with cash, and accompanied Ramirez and Ibarra–Penuelas.

A bit of a goose chase ensued. Through combined efforts, after an officer contacted local cab companies to see if there was a recent pickup from the bus station, the officers went to a nearby Best Western hotel to determine if the men possibly went there. There, the officers learned that three individuals arrived at the Best Western in a cab but did not stay. After questioning employees of the Best Western, officers learned that one of those individuals matched the description of the traveling companion provided by Perez and another matched the photo of Cruz retrieved from the abandoned bag. Further investigation revealed that the men had then taken a cab to the Comfort Inn. At the Comfort Inn, video surveillance revealed that three individuals, one of whom matched the description given by Perez, and another that matched Cruz's identification card, exited a cab in front of the hotel but did not enter the hotel. Instead, they walked to a nearby McDonald's and officers noticed from the video that two of them walked “heavily-footed,” or not normal. At the McDonald's, the officers learned from an employee that she had provided three individuals with a phone book and noted that the men were looking for a cab. The officers contacted various local cab companies again and were told three individuals were picked up from the McDonald's area and taken to the Econo Lodge.

At the Econo Lodge, an officer learned from the desk clerk that three men checked in about a half hour earlier and that one of the men looked like the person on Cruz's identification card. The clerk told the police that these men were in room 220 and gave the officers a key card to the room, as well as a copy of the receipt showing the room was rented to Cruz. Officers then went to room 220; in all, six officers responded at the Econo Lodge, at least one of whom established perimeter surveillance. An officer close to the door testified that the only sound he heard from the room was, after he ultimately knocked on the door, the sound of an individual approaching the door. There is no evidence that the men inside room 220 even knew the police were on their trail.

Once at room 220, an officer attempted to swipe the key card to gain entry into the room but the card did not work. At that point, the officer blocked the peephole, knocked on the door, and announced “housekeeping.” Cruz partially opened the door and when the officer announced his presence and flashed his badge, Cruz attempted to push the door shut. The officers used a ram, which they had brought along apparently anticipating a forced entry, to force the door open. The officers found Ramirez, Ibarra–Penuelas, and Cruz inside. After conducting a cursory sweep and securing the three men, an investigator noticed two pairs of shoes on the side of the bed similar to those packed with heroin and worn by Perez and Amaya–Armenta. Ramirez and Ibarra–Penuelas denied that these shoes belonged to them, and Cruz claimed a pair of boots located elsewhere in the room as his. After the men denied ownership of the two pair of shoes by the bed, the investigators searched the shoes for contraband and found heroin in each. The entire course of events from the time officers approached Perez and Amaya–Armenta at the bus station, and the officers' arrival at the Econo Lodge was approximately two and a half hours.

Before the district court, Ramirez argued that the search of the hotel room was illegal and conducted without a search warrant. The magistrate judge recommended, and the district court found, that the officers' entry was justified by an exigent circumstance: the officers' reasonable fear that the evidence would be imminently destroyed. The magistrate judge's analysis (also adopted by the district court) focused on the following facts known to the police prior to the entry: 1) one of the investigators reasonably believed the men were attempting to elude the officers after they witnessed the officers arrest the two men at the bus stop; 2) the men in room 220 had purchased one-way tickets to Newark, New Jersey, with cash, and were not from Omaha; and 3) after the officers announced their presence, Cruz attempted to shut the door to prevent the officers from entering the room. Once inside, because the men did not claim ownership of the shoes, the court determined they were abandoned and thus the men had no expectation of privacy in them. Accordingly, the court denied Ramirez's motion to suppress.

II. DISCUSSION

On appeal Ramirez argues that the district court erred in finding exigent circumstances justified the officers' warrantless entry into the hotel room. He claims that any alleged “exigency,” if it existed at all on these facts, existed only because the officers created it—that the warrantless, unconstitutional search occurred when the officer unsuccessfully swiped the room card and only then did the officers knock, ultimately resulting in them breaking down the door to enter. Ramirez argues that there are no facts supporting the officers' failure to obtain a warrant in this case.

A. Standard

“The Fourth Amendment protects individuals against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.” United States v. Williams, 521 F.3d 902, 905 (8th Cir.2008).

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

U.S. Const. amend. IV.

The text of the Amendment itself expressly imposes two requirements. “First, all searches and seizures must be reasonable. Second, a warrant may not be issued unless probable cause is properly established and the scope of the authorized search is set out with particularity.” Kentucky v. King, ––– U.S. ––––, 131 S.Ct. 1849, 1856, 179 L.Ed.2d 865 (2011). “ ‘[T]he ultimate touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is “reasonableness.” ’ ” Id. (quoting Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S. 398, 403, 126 S.Ct. 1943, 164 L.Ed.2d 650 (2006)). So, even though a warrant must generally be secured, see id., a non-consensual, warrantless search can be justified by reasonable exceptions, including exigent circumstances. Williams, 521 F.3d at 908. “The [exigent circumstances] exception justifies immediate police action without obtaining a warrant if lives are threatened, a suspect's escape is imminent, or evidence is about to be destroyed.” United States v. Ball, 90 F.3d 260, 263 (8th Cir.1996).

“We review the district court's findings of historical fact for clear error, but the ultimate determination of whether the facts as found constitute exigent circumstances is reviewed de novo.” United States v. Kuenstler, 325 F.3d 1015, 1021 (8th Cir.2003). “The analysis of whether [the exigent circumstance] exception to the warrant requirement has been made out is an objective one ‘focusing on what a reasonable, experienced police officer would believe.’ ” Id. at 1021 (quoting In re Sealed Case 96–3167, 153 F.3d 759, 766 (D.C.Cir.1998)). “[T]he police bear a heavy burden when attempting to demonstrate an urgent need that might justify warrantless searches or arrests.” Welsh v. Wisconsin, 466 U.S. 740, 749–50, 104 S.Ct. 2091, 80 L.Ed.2d 732 (1984). When the exigency at issue is destruction of evidence, police officers must demonstrate a sufficient basis for an officer to believe that somebody in the residence (or hotel room, in this case) will imminently destroy evidence. United States v. Clement, 854 F.2d 1116, 1119 (8th Cir.1988).

B. Exigent Circumstances

The government claims that at the moment the officers were outside of room 220, exigent circumstances justified this warrantless entry because the officers believed, even before they...