DocketNumber: 16-1959
Citation Numbers: 854 F.3d 407, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 6324, 2017 WL 1359478
Judges: Riley, Wollman, Kelly
Filed Date: 4/13/2017
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 11/5/2024
Eleuterio Murillo-Salgado was charged with one count of possessing cocaine with intent to distribute, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1) and (b)(1)(B), after a Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) officer stopped a vehicle in which Salgado was a passenger and discovered cocaine hidden in an air-compressor tank during a search of the vehicle. The district court, adopting the report and recommendation of the magistrate judge, denied Salgado’s motion to suppress the drug evidence. Salgado thereafter entered a conditional guilty plea, reserving his right to challenge the denial of his motion to suppress. The district court sentenced Salgado to sixty-three months’ imprisonment and imposed a special condition of supervision ordering that Salgado be removed from the United States upon completion of his prison term. We affirm the order denying Salgado’s motion to suppress. Because the district court lacked jurisdiction to enter the removal order, however, we amend the special condition of supervision to order that Salgado be surrendered to a duly authorized immigration official for removal proceedings upon completion of his prison term.
We have reviewed the video and audio recording of the traffic stop that the government introduced at the evidentiary hearing on Salgado’s motion to suppress. We recite the facts as found by the magistrate judge and the district court, supplementing only where necessary to fully portray the encounter.
On the morning of April 7, 2014, MSHP Sergeant Larry Allen was patrolling Interstate 29 in Holt County, Missouri, when he observed a four-door Nissan truck traveling southbound in the left lane (but not passing other vehicles) and driving three miles over the posted speed limit. As he began to pursue the truck to initiate a traffic stop, Allen activated the safety lights on his patrol car, thereby triggering video and audio recording equipment.
Allen asked Arredondo for his social security number, but Arredondo did not have that information. Allen again asked Arre-dondo whether he had been arrested and whether he had ever used or transported illegal drugs, to which Arredondo replied that he had not. Allen then called dispatch and provided Arredondo’s name and date of birth for an outstanding-warrants check. A minute or so passed in silence while Allen waited for a reply from dispatch, and Allen then again asked Arredondo about the electrical wiring in the truck. Arredon-do replied that he believed it was twelve-gauge wire and also stated that he was not actually an electrician but merely a “helper,” who drilled holes for installation of the wiring. Allen then asked Arredondo who had rented the truck. Arredondo stated that he had and again explained that he would be reimbursed for the rental by an insurance company. The videotape reveals no signs of nervousness on Arredondo’s part during these exchanges with Allen. Allen called dispatch again, informed the operator that he would be out of his patrol car for a brief period, and approached the parked truck to obtain information from the passenger. Arredondo remained in the patrol car.
As Allen approached the truck, he saw that the passenger was talking on a cell phone while, according to Allen, attempting to hide that fact. As they spoke through the open window, the passenger told Allen that he was on the phone with the contractor for the North Carolina wiring job. Allen asked the passenger to ter
Back in the patrol car, Allen asked Arre-dondo when he had left California, and Arredondo responded that they left Saturday evening. He told Allen that they had not driven all night, but had stopped at a Super 8 along the way. Arredondo then volunteered that it had been snowing when they stopped. Allen asked where the wiring job was located, and Arredondo responded that it was in Greensboro, North Carolina, and further offered that he had worked in West Virginia, Charleston, and North Carolina. He told Allen that he usually flew, but because an insurance company was paying for the rental truck, he had decided to drive on this occasion. Allen again asked who was paying for the truck, and Arredondo repeated that an insurance company was paying. During this exchange, Allen was typing information into his computer and talking to dispatch about Salgado’s identity and record. Arredondo then began to describe the accident he had been in and the trouble he had been having with the other driver’s insurance company, stating that he had retained an at-, torney to help resolve the matter. Allen again asked Arredondo whether there were any drugs, guns, or stolen items in the truck, and Arredondo again denied having any such items. Allen asked who had loaded the truck, and Arredondo replied that he and Salgado had loaded the truck together. Allen received a brief call from dispatch, notifying him that Salgado did not have a valid driver’s license and that he had a criminal record, including a drug-related offense. Allen continued to type on his computer for about a minute while Arredondo waited in silence.
Allen once again asked Arredondo whether there were any illegal drugs in the truck, going through a list of various drugs and receiving a negative reply from Arredondo regarding each substance. Finally, Allen asked Arredondo for permission to search the truck, which Arredondo consented to at 11:01 a.m., roughly twenty-three minutes after Allen had stopped the truck. Allen had not yet completed the tasks associated with the traffic stop or handed Arredondo the written warning upon obtaining Arredondo’s consent to search, and so he asked whether Arredon-do owned everything in the truck. Arre-dondo replied, “Just my clothes and everything else. Well, my clothes,” which he stated were in two bags in the back seat of the truck. Arredondo denied owning any of the tools or tool boxes, but did state that he and Salgado owned the electrical wiring in the truck bed “collectively.” While waiting for MSHP Sergeant Mark Wilhoit to arrive and assist with the search, Allen conducted a pat-down search of Arredondo
Once Wilhoit arrived, Allen again approached the truck and asked Salgado about his criminal record. Salgado replied that it involved “a little cocaine.” Allen then asked Salgado if there was any marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, or heroin in the truck, to which Salgado replied that there was not. Allen then opened the front passenger door of the truck, asked Salgado to get out of the vehicle. During his pat-down search of Salgado, Allen commented on the number of cell phones in Salgado’s possession and the strong odor coming from the vehicle. Allen then directed Salgado to stand on the embankment with Arredondo. Allen did not ask Salgado for consent to search any of the items in the truck.
Wilhoit began to search in and under the truck’s bed, and Allen began to search' the passenger compartment. Upon opening the rear passenger door, Allen could more clearly see the air compressor in the back seat. Allen immediately identified the smell of fresh paint, as well as “some non-factory welding on the air tank ... underneath the motor” of the compressor. Allen then stated, “Man, there is ... something about this that just ain’t right.” Looking more closely at the air compressor as it sat on the truck’s back seat, Allen commented to Wilhoit, “I think it’s in here. I think it’s in this air compressor.” He further remarked on the rough and jagged welds, stating, “Come here and look, freshly painted, wel&ed on, that ain’t right.” Allen noticed that there was “a square cut underneath the motor” that he believed provided “access [to] the air tank that was probably cut open at some point and packages put in.” Without removing the air compressor from the truck, the officers tapped several times on the tank to determine whether it sounded hollow. Wilhoit then lifted the air compressor from the seat and hefted it several times in an attempt to determine if something inside the air tank would noticeably shift, commenting that the compressor felt heavier than it should. Wilhoit placed the compressor on the ground next to the truck and asked Allen to retrieve his “density buster,” described by Allen as a “glorified stud finder,” to use on the exterior of the tank. After applying the density buster to the exterior of the tank, Allen concluded that although the tank “ought to be hollow,” the readings indicated that it was not. Allen and Wilhoit then placed the air compressor on the truck’s now-open tailgate, Allen applied a stethoscope to the tank’s exterior, tapped the tank in several spots, and determined from the resulting sounds that there was something inside.
Using a pair of pliers or similar tool, Wilhoit removed the “bleeder valve” petcock from the air tank, peered through the small hole into the tank itself, and saw gray or silver duct tape. Arredondo and Salgado were then placed under arrest, handcuffed, and advised of their Miranda rights. Wilhoit then inserted a probe through the petcock and into the silver duct tape visible within the air tank. When he removed the probe from the tank, it was covered in white powder, which the officers both believed was cocaine. The air tank was eventually opened and several duct-taped packages of cocaine were recovered.
Salgado filed a motion to suppress the evidence recovered from the truck. The magistrate judge recommended that the motion be denied, concluding that the search of the truck and air compressor did not violate Salgado’s Fourth Amendment rights. The magistrate judge reasoned that Allen developed reasonable suspicion to expand the scope of the routine traffic stop, that the warrantless search of the
In a challenge to the denial of a motion to suppress, we review for clear error a district court’s findings of fact, and we review de novo whether a search violated the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Riley, 684 F.3d 758, 762 (8th Cir. 2012). We will affirm the denial of a motion to suppress unless the district court’s decision was unsupported by substantial evidence, was based on an erroneous interpretation of applicable law, or was clearly mistaken in light of the entire record. United States v. Woods, 829 F.3d 675, 679 (8th Cir. 2016). “We may affirm the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress on any ground the record supports.” United States v. Anderson, 688 F.3d 339, 343 (8th Cir. 2012) (quoting United States v. Pratt, 355 F.3d 1119, 1121 (8th Cir. 2004)); see also United States v. Wells, 347 F.3d 280, 287-88 (8th Cir. 2003) (affirming denial of motion to suppress on basis of automobile exception rather than on basis of search incident to arrest relied on by district court).
Salgado concedes that there was probable cause to stop the truck for the traffic violations. He argues, however, that Allen prolonged the stop beyond the time reasonably required to investigate those violations and without reasonable suspicion of unrelated criminal activity, and thus exceeded the constitutional limitations on such stops set forth in the United States Supreme Court’s post-April 7, 2014, decision in Rodriguez v. United States, — U.S. —, 135 S.Ct. 1609, 191 L.Ed.2d 492 (2015).
In Rodriguez, an officer had completed the routine tasks incident to a traffic stop, including checking the driver’s license and the vehicle’s registration and proof of insurance, and had handed the driver a written traffic warning. Id. at
Our pre-Rodriguez case law similarly recognizes that an officer may detain the occupants of a vehicle during a traffic stop “while the officer completes a number of routine but somewhat time-consuming tasks related to the traffic violation,” including running a computerized check of the vehicle’s registration and insurance; running a similar check of the occupants’ identification documents and criminal histories; preparing the traffic citation or warning; and asking the occupants about their “destination, route, and purpose.” United States v. Peralez, 526 F.3d 1115, 1119 (8th Cir. 2008) (citations omitted). If an officer encounters legitimate complications in completing these routine tasks, the officer “may reasonably detain a driver for a longer duration than when” no such complications arise. United States v. Olivera-Mendez, 484 F.3d 505, 510 (8th Cir. 2007). “An officer’s suspicion of criminal activity may reasonably grow over the course of a traffic stop as the circumstances unfold and more suspicious facts are uncovered.” United States v. Linkous, 285 F.3d 716, 720 (8th Cir. 2002). But the officer must identify “specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts,” amount to reasonable suspicion that further investigation is warranted. Woods, 829 F.3d at 679 (quoting Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968)). The totality of the circumstances are to be considered in determining whether reasonable suspicion existed. See id.
We concluded in United States v. Peralez that the traffic stop was unlawful because “[n]othing unusual occurred during the traffic stop” and “[t]here was nothing unusual or out of place with the [vehicle’s] registration or the driver’s documents” sufficient to justify extending the traffic stop. 526 F.3d at 1120. Rather, “[t]he stop was delayed because of the trooper’s drug interdiction questioning, not because of anything related to the investigation or processing of the traffic violation.” Id. Here, in contrast, Allen was faced with circumstances that, as a whole, were sufficient to establish reasonable suspicion necessary to justify extending the traffic stop.
Allen, who had received specific training in the trafficking of illegal drugs and had participated in “hundreds” of drug investigations, developed reasonable suspicion of drug-related activity while he was completing the routine tasks associated with the traffic stop. He first noticed a discrepancy between the name on Arredondo’s driver’s license and the name on the rental agreement. While further consulting the rental
The video recording of the roughly twenty-three-minute traffic stop indicates that Allen spent that time asking permissible questions of Arredondo arid Salgado regarding the purpose of their trip and their travel route, attempting to corroborate the responses to those questions, placing calls to dispatch, waiting for responses to verify Arredondo’s and Salgado’s identification and criminal history, and entering information into the patrol car’s computer. Unlike the circumstances in Peralez, where “there was ‘absolutely not’ anything” about the motorist’s actions or comments that caused the officer to be concerned that criminal activity was afoot when he began asking drug-interdiction questions, Allen could point to the factors set forth above to justify his reasonable suspicion that criminal activity was afoot. 526 F.Sd at 1117. The traffic stop was not unlawfully prolonged given Allen’s observations of the truck’s contents, the seeming implausibilities and inconsistencies in the responses to Allen’s routine questions, the reasonable suspicion Allen developed as a result of those improbable responses, as well as from Allen’s independent observations. See id. at 1120 (acknowledging that “an officer may extend or expand the scope of a traffic stop beyond the original justification for the stop.... if the officer develops reasonable suspicion that other criminal activity is afoot”); United States v. McCarty, 612 F.3d 1020, 1023 (8th Cir. 2010) (noting that an officer’s suspicion was reasonably aroused when a motorist “planned to maintain a very fast pace, having rented the car for only three days” to drive from Seattle to Atlanta, and when the cost of the rental “exceeded [the officer’s] estimate of round-trip airfare”).
We thus conclude that the traffic stop exceeded neither the constitutional boundaries set forth in our then-extant decisions nor those set forth in Rodriguez. To the extent that Rodriguez may be read to impose limitations greater than those reflected in our cases, we conclude that the evidence was nevertheless properly admitted, because “searches conducted in objectively reasonable reliance on binding appellate precedent are not subject to the exclusionary rule.” Davis v. United States, 564 U.S. 229, 232, 131 S.Ct. 2419, 180 L.Ed.2d 285 (2011). Indeed, citing Davis, we upheld Rodriguez’s conviction on remand. See United States v. Rodriguez, 799 F.3d 1222, 1223-24 (8th Cir. 2015), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 136 S.Ct. 1514, 194 L.Ed.2d 605 (2016); see also United States v. Englehart, 811 F.3d 1034, 1040 n.1 (8th Cir. 2016) (reversing grant of motion to suppress because “we apply the law of the circuit as it existed at the time of the stop,” and “Eighth Circuit precedent at [that] time ... permitted a de minimis extension of a stop to employ a dog”); United States v. Coleman, 700 F.3d 329,
Because the traffic stop was not impermissibly expanded or prolonged, Ar-redondo’s consent to search the truck was valid, the continued detention to search the truck pursuant to that consent was permissible, and the ensuing search of the truck was lawful. See Peralez, 526 F.3d at 1120 (recognizing that an officer may extend or expand the scope of a traffic stop if the encounter becomes consensual); United States v. Barragan, 379 F.3d 524, 529-30 (8th Cir. 2004) (noting that a mere passenger who has no ownership rights in a vehicle has no standing to challenge a search of that vehicle). Salgado argues, however, that even if the search of the truck itself was a lawful consensual search, the search of the air compressor was not, because Arredondo’s consent could not have extended to the air compressor, over which he had specifically disclaimed ownership. Salgado further contends that even if the district court properly concluded that the seizure of the air compressor was lawful under the plain-view exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement, the court erred in concluding that the search of the air compressor was lawful under the single-purpose-container exception to the warrant requirement, which permits the warrantless search of certain containers where the contents of the container are a foregone conclusion. See Banks, 514 F.3d at 773-74 (noting that, like objects in plain view, there is no reasonable expectation of privacy attendant to certain closed containers' because the contents of the container may be inferred from the container’s outward appearance); see also United States v. Corral, 970 F.2d 719, 725 (10th Cir. 1992) (noting that when a container’s “ ‘distinctive configuration ... proclaims its contents,’ the container supports no reasonable expectation of privacy and the contents can be said to be in plain view” (citations omitted)).
We need not belabor the district court’s reliance on the single-purpose-container exception to justify the warrantless search of the air compressor, because the search was permissible under the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. See, e.g., Wells, 347 F.3d at 287 (“It is a well-settled principle that we may affirm a district court’s judgment on any basis supported by the record.” (citation omitted)).
A warrantless search of an automobile for contraband is allowed under the Fourth Amendment if an officer has probable cause to justify the search, see generally United States v. Ross, 456 U.S. 798, 825, 102 S.Ct. 2157, 72 L.Ed.2d 572 (1982), or if the officer has obtained voluntary consent, provided that the search is limited to the scope of the consent, Schneckloth v. Bustamonte, 412 U.S. 218, 219, 93 S.Ct. 2041, 36 L.Ed.2d 854 (1973) (“It is equally well settled that one of the specifically established exceptions to the requirements of both a warrant and probable cause is a search that is conducted pursuant to consent.”). Observations made by an officer during a consensual search of a vehicle may provide the officer with probable cause to expand the scope of the search under the automobile exception. See United States v. Guevara, 731 F.3d 824, 829-31 (8th Cir. 2013) (concluding that when officers conducting a consensual
Allen began his search pursuant to Ar-redondo’s voluntary consent, which entitled Allen to search all areas of the truck, including the passenger compartment where the air compressor was located. Allen’s detection of the odor of fresh paint, his unimpeded observation of fresh paint on the air compressor’s tank and the rough, jagged, non-factory welds on the motor-attaching bracket and on the air tank itself, gave him probable cause to believe “that contraband or evidence of a crime [was] present.” Harris, 133 S.Ct. at 1055. The totality of the circumstances— coupled with Allen’s training and experience in “hundreds” of drug investigations — provided “a fair probability” from the moment Allen observed the air compressor that the truck held “contraband or evidence of a crime.” Harris, 133 S.Ct. at 1055. Accordingly, under the automobile exception to the warrant requirement, Allen was permitted to search “every part of the vehicle and its contents” that could conceal drug-related contraband, including the air compressor. Ross, 456 U.S. at 825, 102 S.Ct. 2157; Houghton, 526 U.S. at 302, 119 S.Ct. 1297. We thus affirm the denial of the motion to suppress.
Salgado also argues that the district court exceeded its authority under 18 U.S.C. § 3583(d) when it ordered that he be removed as a special condition of supervision. See, e.g., United States v. Tinoso, 327 F.3d 864, 865 (9th Cir. 2003) (“agreeing] with ... the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits ... that a district court exceeds its authority in ordering, as a condition of supervised release, immediate and automatic deportation without a deportation hearing” and citing cases). Unless the prosecutor and immigration officials request that the district court hold a removal
1. Upon completion of his term of imprisonment, the defendant shall be surrendered to a duly authorized immigration official for removal in accordance with the procedures set forth in the Immigration and Naturalization Act, 8 U.S.C. §§ 1101-1524.
See United States v. Sanchez, 923 F.2d 236, 238 (1st Cir. 1991) (concluding that district court exceeded its authority in ordering defendant deported, but declining to remand for resentencing and instead amending judgment); see also United States v. Phommachanh, 91 F.3d 1383, 1388 (10th Cir. 1996) (amending the judgment); United States v. Xiang, 77 F.3d 771, 773 (4th Cir. 1996) (same).
As modified, the judgment is affirmed.
. The patrol car was equipped with video cameras that recorded activity both within and in front of the vehicle. In addition, Sergeant Allen was wearing a microphone that recorded audio during the traffic stop.
. The district court made one modification to the report and recommendation to correct a typographical error.