United States District Court, D. New Mexico
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER
REAGAN, CHIEF JUDGE [1] :
This
matter is before the Court on Defendant Mathias Mora's
Motion to Suppress Evidence and Statements [Doc. 21]. The
Court conducted a hearing on the motion on August 10, 2017.
Mr.
Mora's Motion to Suppress Evidence and Statements is
DENIED in all respects. While it is a basic principle of
Fourth Amendment jurisprudence that searches and seizures
inside a home without a warrant are presumptively
unreasonable (See Brigham City v. Stuart, 547 U.S.
390, 606 (2006)), the Government has provided compelling
evidence that the carefully limited, short duration
“sweep” of Mr. Mora's home was not
unconstitutionally impermissible. The credible testimony of
the officers ultimately responsible for conducting the sweep
that the sweep was necessary, based upon exigent
circumstances, due to the possibility that missing or
possibly harmed undocumented immigrants might be in the home,
carried the day for the Government.
Furthermore,
the Court concludes that the agents had probable cause to
arrest Mr. Mora, that Mr. Mora was properly Mirandized, that
the affidavits in support of search warrants for Mr.
Mora's house and the tractor-trailer he drove established
probable cause for issuance of the warrants, and that
statements made by and evidence seized from Mr. Mora are
admissible at trial in this case.
I.
Background
Mr.
Mora has been charged with seven counts of transporting
illegal aliens, in violation of 8 U.S.C. §
1324(a)(1)(A)(ii), and one count of felon in possession of
firearms in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and
924(a)(2).
On
October 27, 2016, agents from the Department of Homeland
Security (“HSI”) in Albuquerque received a call
from Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office
(“BCSO”) task force officers. The task force
officers had fielded a call from a person reporting a
semi-truck that was parked behind the Albertsons Market at
the intersection of Rio Bravo and Isleta. The caller had seen
between 30 and 60 people exiting the back of the semi-truck
and walking around the parking lot. BCSO and HSI agents drove
to the Albertsons, where they found 14 undocumented
immigrants in the area. The semi-truck, however, was gone.
Agents
fanned out, searching for the missing vehicle. Shortly
thereafter, it was located in the parking lot of the Walmart
at the intersection of Coors and Rio Bravo. The cab was
locked, but the rear trailer doors were not. Agents opened
the doors of the trailer and found that it was empty except
for a Sure Fine vegetable oil bottle filled with a yellow
substance that smelled like urine. Based on the statement of
the eyewitness and the evidence at the scene, agents believed
that some of the people who had been inside the trailer were
missing. Agents were able to determine from the license plate
and the placards on the semi-truck that the truck belonged to
Mr. Mora and the trailer belonged to Swingline Transport.
Surveillance video from the Walmart was obtained. It showed
the semi-truck pulling into the Walmart parking lot and
parking. An individual then emerges from the semi-truck,
walks toward the store, and goes inside. Video from inside
the store showed the individual pick up a 12-pack of Dos
Equis beer, purchase the beer and a package of tortillas,
exit the store, and walk toward the tractor-trailer before
being picked up by a car.
Based
on information provided by Swingline Transport, HSI obtained
Mr. Mora's home address and dispatched agents to his
home. Shortly thereafter, Mr. and Mrs. Mora arrived home in a
car that appeared to be the same car seen picking the
individual up in the Walmart parking lot. The agents arrested
Mr. Mora and detained Mrs. Mora. Mrs. Mora declined
permission to search the house. Agents made a decision to
conduct a sweep of the house for both security and
humanitarian reasons. During the three-minute sweep, agents
observed ammunition boxes and what appeared to be a gun safe.
Later in the day, agents obtained and executed search
warrants for the house and the semi-trailer. At the house,
they found, inter alia, guns and ammunition.
II.
Motion to Suppress
In
support of his Motion to Suppress, Defendant asserts that
agents did not have probable cause to arrest him, that he was
improperly Mirandized, that the “protective
sweep” of his house was unconstitutional and,
therefore, any information gathered during the sweep could
not be used to support the search warrant applications, that
the affidavits submitted in support of the search warrants
did not establish probable cause to search his house or
trailer, and that any evidence seized from Defendant,
including his post-arrest statements, must be suppressed as
fruits of the poisonous tree.
III.
Analysis
A.
Probable Cause for Arrest
Mr.
Mora contends that agents did not have probable cause to
arrest him. Specifically, he argues that there is no evidence
that he was the person who drove the truck into the
Albertsons parking lot, or that, if he was the driver of the
truck, there is no evidence that undocumented immigrants had
been in or emerged from the trailer while he was in control
of it.
“Probable
cause” means “facts and circumstances within the
officer's knowledge that are sufficient to warrant a
prudent person, or one of reasonable caution, in believing,
in the circumstances shown, that the suspect has committed,
is committing, or is about to commit an offense.”
Michigan v. DeFillippo, 443 U.S. 31, 37 (1979).
Courts must “look at the ‘totality of the
circumstances' of each case to see whether the detaining
officer has a ‘particularized and objective basis'
for suspecting legal wrongdoing.'” United
States v. Ledesma, 447 F.3d 1307, 1316 (10th Cir. 2006)
(quoting United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273
(2002)). Probable cause requires “only the probability,
and not a prima facie showing, of criminal activity.”
Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 419 (1969).
Probable cause does not require that an officer's belief
about the commission of a crime or that certain items may be
useful as evidence “be correct or more likely true than
false.” Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 742
(1983).
HSI
Special Agent Steven Lopez testified at the suppression
hearing that on the morning of October 27, 2016, HSI in
Albuquerque took a call from task force officers at the
Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office (“BCSO”),
advising that BCSO had received a call from a person
informing them there was a semi-truck parked behind the
Albertsons at the intersection of Rio Bravo and Isleta. TR at
7. According to Agent Lopez, the caller reported that he had
seen between 30 and 60 people getting down from the trailer
area of the semi-truck and walking around the parking lot. TR
at 7-8. The caller described the vehicle as a white
semi-tractor with an Iowa license plate and a Halloween-type
mask on the cab's passenger-side visor. TR at 13. BCSO
and HSI agents, including Agent Lopez, drove to the
Albertsons where they found 14 undocumented immigrants
milling around the area. Id. Based on the
discrepancy between the number of people the caller reported
seeing and the number of people there when law enforcement
arrived at the parking lot, the agents believed there were
people missing. TR at 8. The 14 undocumented immigrants were
taken to the HSI office and interviewed. TR at 14. None of
the people interviewed could identify the driver of the
semi-truck. Govt. Ex. 20 at p. 3, ¶ 8; Govt. Ex. 22 at
p. 4, ¶ 7. Many of them stated that they were smuggled
across the United States border and transported in the
trailer of the semi-truck. Id. Some of the
undocumented immigrants stated that when they were being
loaded into the trailer, the driver hid behind the door of
the truck and told them to get in. Id. Some stated
that when they were released in the morning, the driver again
hid behind the doors of the trailer and told them to run and
not look back. Id. Agent Lopez admitted that during
those interviews, no one indicated that someone might be
injured or in distress at Mr. Mora's house. TR at 47-48.
However, he also testified, based on his experience in
interviewing hundreds of undocumented immigrants, that they
are not normally forthcoming with information. TR at 56.
The
semi-truck was no longer at the Albertsons when agents
arrived, and the Albertsons parking lot did not have a
security camera. TR at 7, 27. After the eyewitness provided a
description of the semi-truck, BCSO and HSI agents fanned
out, searching the area for it. TR at 7. Soon
thereafter, BCSO agents located a truck that fit the
description approximately one to two miles from the
Albertsons in the parking lot of a Walmart at the
intersection of Coors and Bravo. TR at 7-8. The cab had a
Halloween mask hanging from the passenger-side visor. TR at
13; Govt. Ex. 18. A placard on the driver's side of the
vehicle bore the name “Swingline Transport, Cedar
Rapids, Iowa.” TR at 8; Govt. Ex. 10. An intelligence
resource specialist at HSI telephoned Swingline Transport and
was given Mr. Mora's name and address as the driver and
possible owner of the vehicle. TR at 11. The semi-trailer had
other placards from which the agents determined that Mr. Mora
did not own the trailer. TR at 11-12; Govt. Exs. 11-12.
The
agents were concerned that there might still be people in the
trailer. TR at 15. They tried to open the doors of the cab,
but they were locked. Id. Michael Bates, a technical
enforcement officer at Homeland Security, opened the
trailer's rear doors, which were unlocked. TR at 41-42.
There were no people inside, and the only thing they found
was a Sure Fine vegetable oil bottle filled with what smelled
like urine. TR at 15-16; Govt. Exs. 16-17.[2] Officer Bates
told Agent Lopez that the trailer smelled like body odor. TR
at 43. No other odd smells were noticed. Id.
There
was no food or water inside the trailer, it had no bathroom
facilities, and it was not equipped with any passenger safety
restraints. TR at 21. In Agent Lopez's opinion, the
people in the tractor-trailer had been treated as cargo. TR
at 22. Agent Lopez testified that in the past, Mexican
cartels traditionally smuggled only narcotics, but, more
recently, they had become involved in smuggling people. TR at
22-23. The cartels use guides to transport the undocumented
immigrants from Mexico into the United States, crossing
extremely dangerous areas through the desert without water.
TR at 23. If people can't keep up, they are left behind.
Id. Once they are in the United States, they are
taken to “stash houses, ” where they are usually
held by armed guards. TR at 23, 25. They are kept at the
stash house until there are enough people going to a certain
location, and then they “break people off, ” to
that location. TR at 25. Agent Lopez testified that the
undocumented immigrants stay in the stash houses from as
little as one day to as long as three weeks. Id.
According
to Agent Lopez, human smuggling organizations usually provide
a guarantee that the undocumented immigrants will get to
their final destination. TR at 26. If the undocumented
immigrants are picked up by Immigration and removed, the
smugglers don't get paid. Id. The agent
testified that this was “an extremely highly unusual
investigation in that [the people] were dumped behind this
Albertsons, ” and based on interviews with several of
them, “it didn't seem like many, if [any] at all,
were coming to Albuquerque.” Id. Instead,
“[t]hey were going to various parts of the
country.” Id. He testified that HSI had never
seen this in Albuquerque before. Id.
The
unusual circumstances led Agent Lopez to believe
“something went wrong” and as a result,
“the driver dumped his cargo in a location that seemed
to be perfect for doing this, because there was no cameras,
there was not anything behind the location” and
“[i]t just doesn't make sense to me
whatsoever.” TR at 27. Based on his training and
experience, and information he had from other districts,
Agent Lopez knew that during smuggling operations,
“[p]eople die in transit, whether it's in the
desert, whether it's in tractor-trailers, whether
it's in the back of a box truck, whether it's in a
truck and they flip over.” Id. Agent Lopez
testified that when he interviewed the immigrants, they
indicated ...