US v. Mejia

• Decision Date: 12 March 2010
• Docket Number: No. 08-2505.,08-2505.
• Citation: 600 F.3d 12
• Parties: UNITED STATES of America, Appellee, v. Ricardo MEJIA, Defendant, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

600 F.3d 12

UNITED STATES of America, Appellee,
v.
Ricardo MEJIA, Defendant, Appellant.

No. 08-2505.

United States Court of Appeals, First Circuit.

Heard December 7, 2009.

Decided March 12, 2010.

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COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

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George J. West, by Appointment of the Court, for appellant.

Donald C. Lockhart, Assistant United States Attorney, with whom Peter F. Neronha, United States Attorney, and Sandra R. Hebert, Assistant United States Attorney, were on brief for appellee.

Before BOUDIN, STAHL, and LIPEZ, Circuit Judges.

STAHL, Circuit Judge.

Defendant-appellant Ricardo Mejia raises a variety of objections to his conviction for conspiring to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime. He also objects to his sentence. After careful consideration, we affirm his conviction and sentence in all respects.

I. Factual Background

a. The Drug Deal

Mejia and his co-defendant Eudy Tejada-Pichardo ("Tejada") were arrested on

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December 18, 2006, immediately following the sale of two kilograms of cocaine to two government informants, Ambioris Falette and Marie Perez. Prior to the sale, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) recorded two phone calls between Tejada and the informants discussing Tejada's plan to sell the informants multiple kilograms of cocaine in Providence, Rhode Island. Mejia, the appellant here, was neither a part of these conversations nor was he mentioned during them. However, according to phone records entered into evidence, in the six weeks preceding the drug deal Mejia and Tejada phoned each other over 470 times, including once on the night that the deal took place. In addition, during a third recorded phone call between Tejada and the informants on the night of the deal, Tejada stated that "we are already heading over there." (emphasis added)

On the night of the deal, Tejada and Mejia arrived together at a McDonald's restaurant in Providence in a green car. Informant Perez arrived in a red car and informant Falette subsequently arrived in a car owned by the DEA. When Falette arrived in the parking lot, Tejada, Mejia, and Perez emerged from the McDonald's restaurant. Tejada then removed a suitcase from Perez's car, placed it in Falette's car and then got into the car with Falette. While Tejada was moving the suitcase, Mejia stood near Perez's car, looking back and forth and up and down the street. According to testimony from a DEA agent who observed the exchange, Mejia's actions resembled "counter-surveillance." After the suitcase was moved, Mejia got into the passenger seat of Perez's car and both cars left the parking lot. (According to the DEA recordings, the plan was to drive to another location where Falette would pick up the cash payment and give it to Tejada. Tejada's car remained unoccupied and parked in the parking lot.)

Soon after, police officers stopped both cars and arrested Mejia and Tejada. The police found two kilograms of cocaine in a hidden compartment in the suitcase and a loaded .45 caliber pistol with an obliterated serial number on the floor of Perez's car, just behind the driver's seat and with the handle pointed toward the passenger's seat, where Mejia had been sitting. A search of Tejada's car, still parked at the McDonald's, turned up a small notebook containing lists of names paired with numbers. A DEA agent later testified that this was a "drug ledger."¹ The notebook also bore a signature which matched the one that Mejia subsequently placed on a Miranda form. A search of Mejia's person following his arrest yielded numerous pieces of paper which bore notations that were similar to those in the notebook, were written in the same handwriting, shared several names in common with those appearing in the notebook, and contained columns and numbers that corresponded to the going rate of cocaine.

b. Mejia's Admissions

At the scene of the arrest, Detective Andres Perez, a native Spanish speaker, orally advised Mejia of his Miranda rights in Spanish. Once at the police station, Mejia was again advised orally, in Spanish, of his rights. Detective Perez then confirmed that Mejia could read Spanish and gave Mejia a Spanish-language form that

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delineated his Miranda rights. Officer Perez also read each of the rights out loud in Spanish from the text of the form and asked Mejia whether he understood his rights. Mejia indicated that he did and then placed his initials next to each of the enumerated rights and initialed a statement in Spanish that the police had made no threats or promises to him; he also checked a box indicating that he understood his rights. Finally, Detective Perez told Mejia that, if he wished, he could sign his name to the bottom of the form and Mejia elected to do so. It is uncontroverted that the form contained no language regarding waiver of rights; it only laid out the content of Mejia's Miranda rights

After signing the form, Mejia began answering questions posed to him by Detective Perez and the other officer present, Agent Michael Naylor.² According to Perez's translation of Mejia's oral statements, Mejia told the officers that Tejada had given him the gun when they were in the McDonald's, that he had then tucked the gun into his waistband, and that he had placed the gun under the driver's seat of the informant's car when he saw police approaching. Mejia also said that his job was to "protect" Tejada and "watch his back," though when the police asked what he was protecting Tejada from, he merely stated "you know." Mejia also said that he "assumed" the transaction that took place was a drug deal. After making these statements, Mejia offered to become a government informant. When the officers attempted to commit Mejia's statements to writing, Mejia became evasive and the officers terminated the interrogation. Mejia's interaction with the police officers was not taped and no contemporaneous notes were taken. However, Agent Naylor wrote a report of the interview two days later. For the duration of the interrogation Mejia had one arm handcuffed to a rail coming out from the wall, but there was no testimony or allegation that he was in any discomfort.

c. Indictment, Trial, and Appeal

Mejia was indicted on three counts, conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B), as well as 21 U.S.C. § 846; possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B); and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug crime, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924(c). At trial and over Mejia's objection and unsuccessful motion to suppress, the government introduced the incriminating statements Mejia made during the interrogation. Also over Mejia's objection, the government introduced the recorded conversations between Tejada and the informants as well as the drug ledgers. The jury convicted Mejia on the conspiracy and gun charges but acquitted him on the charge of possession with intent to distribute. The district court sentenced him to the mandatory minimum of five years on each count, to run consecutively for a total of ten years.

Several weeks after the trial concluded, the government received a "trace report" on the pistol which indicated that it was originally purchased by a man from New Hampshire and had not been reported stolen. Mejia moved for a new trial based on this new evidence and alleged discovery violations. The district court denied the motion following an evidentiary hearing.

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II. Discussion

a. The Motion to Suppress

Though Mejia raises numerous objections to his conviction and sentence, his appeal of the denial of the motion to suppress his incriminating statements is the only one of real consequence. We thus begin our analysis there.

We review the district court's findings on the denial of the suppression motion for clear error and review its legal determinations de novo. See United States v. Parker, 549 F.3d 5, 8 (1st Cir. 2008).

Mejia argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because the officers did not tell him what he was suspected of, did not "accurately interpret his...