United States v. Aaron Racca

255 F. App'x 367
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedOctober 18, 2007
Docket06-13790
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 255 F. App'x 367 (United States v. Aaron Racca) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Aaron Racca, 255 F. App'x 367 (11th Cir. 2007).

Opinion

PER CURIAM:

Aaron Racca was charged in a three-count indictment with attempted manufacture of methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 846 (Count 1), maintaining a place for the purpose of manufacturing methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 856(a)(1) (Count 2), and possession of chemicals and equipment to manufacture methamphetamine, in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 843(a)(6) (Count 3). After unsuccessfully moving the district court to suppress evidence obtained from his residential apartment and post-arrest statements he made to detectives of the Broward County, Florida sheriffs office, Racca entered a conditional plea of guilty to each count of the indictment, reserving the right to appeal the court’s denial of his motion to suppress, and the court sentenced him to concurrent prison terms of 48 months. He now appeals his convictions.

Racca argues, first, that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence obtained in a search of his apartment. He consented to the search but contends that it was involuntary because he was under the influence of drugs at that time and he gave in to the officers’ “show of force.” He cites United States v. Edmondson, 791 F.2d 1512 (11th Cir.1986), to explain how the sheer number of officers present at the scene made it impossible for him not to resist their request to conduct a search. Bearing on his will not to resist were these facts: (1) he was surrounded by at least five officers; (2) he was 23 years old at the time of his arrest; (3) he had a learning disability, (4) he was under the influence of drugs; (5) he was read his Miranda rights 1 only after the search was finished; (6)(7) he was under arrest, because one of the officers said that *369 he was not free to leave; (8) the officers misrepresented that they would get a search warrant if he did not consent to the search; (9) his consent occurred in a public place; and (10) as soon as the search was over, he ran from the scene and jumped into the ocean.

“The denial of a motion to suppress presents a mixed question of law and fact. We defer to the district court’s findings of fact unless clearly erroneous, considering them in the light most favorable to the prevailing party”, United States v. Fernandez, 58 F.3d 593, 596 (11th Cir.1995), but review the court’s application of the law to the facts de novo. “[T]he general rule in the criminal context is that warrantless searches are per se unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment — subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.” United States v. Gonzalez, 71 F.3d 819, 825 (11th Cir.1996) (quotations omitted). “[I]t is well settled that one of the specifically established exceptions to the requirements of both a warrant and probable cause is a search conducted pursuant to consent to search.” Id. at 827.

The voluntariness of a defendant’s consent to search is a question of fact to be determined from all the circumstances. Nevertheless, an appellate court must examine the entire record and make an independent determination of the ultimate issue of voluntariness. Normally, we will accord the district judge a great deal of deference regarding a finding of voluntariness, and we will disturb the ruling only if [it is] left with the definite and firm conviction that the trial judge erred.

Fernandez, 58 F.3d at 596-97. In the context of a confession, while we

must take into account [the defendant’s] mental limitations, to determine whether through susceptibility to surrounding pressures or inability to comprehend the circumstances, the confession was not a product of his own free will, mental deficiencies of the defendant, by themselves, are not sufficient to render a confession involuntary. To establish that his confession was involuntary, [the defendant] must also establish police coercion.

Moore v. Dugger, 856 F.2d 129, 132 (11th Cir.1988) (citations omitted). That the police inform the party (whose premises are searched) that they will obtain a search warrant absent consent does not establish coercion. United States v. Garcia, 890 F.2d 355, 361 (11th Cir.1989).

In this case, the district court did not clearly err in finding that Racca’s consent to search was voluntary. In his Report and Recommendation to the district court, which the court adopted in full after examining the record, the magistrate judge found the testimony of Detective Robson to be more credible than that of the apartment manager, Rachel Mendelson, and, therefore, rejected Mendelson’s testimony to the extent that it was inconsistent with Robson’s. In doing so, the magistrate noted that Mendelson’s testimony was both internally inconsistent and inconsistent with other evidence. Racca signed a consent to search form after reading it twice and having it read to him once. Racca was not coerced into signing the consent to search form. Even if the officers had stated that they would get a warrant if he did not consent, this would not render his consent involuntary; that the police inform a party that they will obtain a warrant if the party does not consent to a search does not amount to coercion. Garcia, 890 F.2d at 361. In Garcia, we noted that the defendant “adduced no evidence indicating a lack of mental capacity to understand his actions.” Id. That is the case here. While Racca asserts that he was high on drugs when he signed the consent form, the only *370 testimony on this point at the suppression hearing was provided by Mendelson, and she admitted that she did not see Raeca use drugs on the day of the arrest and did not know when he last used drugs. Additionally, to the extent that she inferred that Racca had a demonstrated diminished capacity when he signed the consent form, she was contradicted by Detective Robson, whose testimony the magistrate judge credited. The taped interview of Racca indicates that he was calm during his interrogation and answered questions clearly. The magistrate judge’s findings are' well supported by the record and, thus, are not “contrary to the laws of nature, or [ ] so inconsistent or improbable on [their] face that no reasonable factfinder would accept [them].” United States v. Pineiro, 389 F.3d 1359, 1366 (11th Cir.2004).

As for Racca’s apparent reliance on Edmondson,

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Bluebook (online)
255 F. App'x 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-aaron-racca-ca11-2007.