United States v. Spears
United States v. Spears
Opinion of the Court
MEMORANDUM
Defendants Spears, Hodge, and Branch appeal their convictions, after a jury trial, for their roles in a conspiracy to transport cocaine from California to Oregon where the conspiracy distributed the cocaine.
Spears and Hodge allege that the district court erred in denying their motion to suppress evidence obtained from a wiretap of Spears’ telephones. We review de novo the district court’s denial of a motion to suppress wiretap evidence.
The affidavit requesting the wiretap warrant is extensive. It documents that the investigation of the drug conspiracy had been unable to identify the conspiracy’s scope or Spears’ or Hodge’s role in it because of the necessity of access to oral communications. And it documents that other investigative methods were unlikely to uncover the information because of the risk of detection and violence.
Spears and Branch argue that the district court erred by denying their motion in limine to exclude “other acts” evidence of the homicide of Anthony Branch, Jr. at the hands of co-conspirator McCoy. We review the district court’s decision on a motion in limine for an abuse of discretion.
Citing an alleged attempt by Spears to kill him, Branch argues that the district court erred in granting the government’s motion to strike his offered defense of duress. We review de novo the district court’s decision to preclude a defendant’s line of defense.
Branch argues that the district court should have dismissed the indictment because of a pre-indictment conversation between himself and a police officer outside of his lawyer’s presence. Alternatively, he argues his statements to police at that meeting should be suppressed. Viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the government, we review de novo whether the government engaged in misconduct rising to the level of a due process violation.
Branch argues that his statements to police and the wiretap evidence against him are fruits of an illegal search and the district court erred in not suppressing them. We review de novo the denial of a motion to suppress.
These two intervening events make the relationship of the search to the subsequent statements to police sufficiently attenuated that the statements need not be excluded.
Finally, Hodge and Branch argue that the district court made an Apprendi error in their sentence because the indictment specified no drug quantity. We assume for purposes of this decision that the government’s failure to allege a drug quantity in the indictment, except in the overt acts, creates an Apprendi error,
AFFIRMED.
This disposition is not appropriate for publication and may not be cited to or by the courts of this circuit except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.
. United States v. Reyna, 218 F.3d 1108, 1110 (9th Cir. 2000).
. Id.
. See United States v. Jordan, 291 F.3d 1091, 1099 (9th Cir. 2002).
. See Branch E.R. at 601-53.
. See United States v. Carneiro, 861 F.2d 1171, 1178-81 (9th Cir. 1988).
. Spears E.R. at 367-84.
. Carneiro, 861 F.2d at 1178.
. United States v. Ross, 206 F.3d 896, 898 (9th Cir. 2000).
. United States v. Williams, 291 F.3d 1180, 1189 (9th Cir. 2002).
. Id.
. United States v. Moreno, 102 F.3d 994, 997 (9th Cir. 1996).
. Id.
. United States v. Emmert, 829 F.2d 805, 810 (9th Cir. 1987).
. See United States v. Irwin, 612 F.2d 1182, 1186-87 (9th Cir. 1980).
. See United States v. Harrison, 213 F.3d 1206, 1215 n. 6 (9th Cir. 2000).
. United States v. Jones, 286 F.3d 1146, 1150 (9th Cir. 2002).
. See United States v. Smith, 155 F.3d 1051, 1061-62 (9th Cir. 1998).
. United States v. Buckland, 277 F.3d 1173, 1182 (9th Cir. 2001) (en banc).
. United States v. Jordan, 291 F.3d 1091, 1097 (9th Cir. 2002).
. United States v. Velasco-Heredia, 319 F.3d 1080, 1085-86 (9th Cir. 2003).
. See Hodge Reply Brief at 1, n. 1.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff—Appellee v. Adolph SPEARS, Sr., Defendant—Appellant United States of America, Plaintiff—Appellee v. Dana Annette Hodge, Defendant—Appellant United States of America, Plaintiff—Appellee v. Byron Van Branch, Jr., aka Muff aka John Macell, Defendant—Appellant
- Cited By
- 6 cases
- Status
- Published