United States v. Angel Hernandez

611 F. App'x 261
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMay 1, 2015
Docket14-5392
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 611 F. App'x 261 (United States v. Angel Hernandez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth 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. Angel Hernandez, 611 F. App'x 261 (6th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

HOOD, District Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Angel Hernandez (“Hernandez” or “Defendant”) was convicted by a jury of possession with intent to distribute more than 50 grams of methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841(a). Prior to the trial, the district court denied Hernandez’s motion in limine in which he sought to exclude statements that he made during an interview with law enforcement on March 13, 2013, finding that his waiver of his right to remain silent was knowing, intelligent, and voluntary. The district court sentenced him to 188 months’ imprisonment, over his objection, premised on a United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines (Sentencing Guidelines) base offense level of 36, which attributed to him a quantity of methamphetamine found in the possession of a co-defendant for which Hernandez was uncharged. Defendant appeals both decisions. For the reasons stated below, we AFFIRM.

I.

A federal grand jury charged Defendant Angel Hernandez and his co-defendant, Thomas Dobbins, with possession with intent to distribute more than fifty grams of actual methamphetamine, by reason of aiding and abetting, in Count 1 of a superseding indictment on March 18, 2013. Dobbins was also charged- with being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm in Counts 2 through 6 and a convicted felon in possession of ammunition in Counts 7 through 12. The grand jury charged Hernandez with possession with intent to distribute more than fifty grams of a mixture and substance containing methamphetamine in Count 13 of the superseding indictment. The government moved to dismiss Count 1 of the superseding indictment as to Hernandez, and the court granted its motion.

Prior to trial, Defendant filed a motion in limine seeking a ruling on “the volun-tariness of any alleged confession or statements of the Defendant.” [DE 87, Motion in Limine, PagelD # 173-74], The district court considered Hernandez’s motion in limine just prior to the jury trial as to Count 13, on December 2, 2013. After hearing testimony and argument, the court concluded that Hernandez’s statements to law enforcement were given voluntarily and should not be excluded at trial.

At the hearing, Special Agent Paul Thomas (“Agent Thomas”), the primary investigator on the case involving Hernandez, testified about the March 12, 2013 execution of the search warrant and arrest of Defendant in a room at the Deerfield Inn in Humboldt, Tennessee. Thomas explained that, although he found evidence of drug use in that motel room, Hernandez did not appear to be under the influence of drugs and was aware of the happenings around him when he was arrested. Thomas observed that Hernandez was “... coherent enough to know when we were *263 coming in. He just laid down in the floor. I didn’t have to tell him to get in the floor. When I come [sic] in the room he was already laying in the floor in the prone position.” [DE 127, Transcript of Motion in Limine, Jury Trial, PagelD # 325]. Hernandez was then advised of his Mi-, randa rights. Before Thomas and Special Agent Danny Lewis interviewed Hernandez the next morning, on March 13, 2013, Thomas again read Hernandez his Miranda rights from a form, which included a space to sign if Hernandez elected to waive those rights. Thomas provided the form to Hernandez, who took a pen and signed the form. Approximately eleven hours had passed from the time that law enforcement arrested Defendant to the time that Thomas and Lewis sought to interview him. Agent Thomas observed that the defendant appeared able to tell what was going on and spoke clearly during the interview. He found Hernandez “fairly cooperative to [sic ] the most part. But he was calm, collective [sic ], sitting in a chair in the interview room with us.” [Jet at 316]. Among other things,

Muring the interview, Hernandez admitted to possessing the methamphetamine that investigators found in his hotel room. Hernandez advised that the methamphetamine had been brought to him from Texas for purposes of resale. Hernandez further stated that he was the leader of the Sureños 13 gang out of Nashville, Jackson, and Memphis. Hernandez indicated that he had approximately 3,000 members under him. Hernandez also stated that the money he earned from selling methamphetamine was going back to Texas and Mexico to fund his gang’s endeavors.

[PSR, ¶ 25].

At one point during the interview, Thomas and Lewis asked Hernandez for the passcode to his telephone, and he had the wherewithal to refuse to provide it to them, although he later changed his mind and gave it to them. Thomas did not ask Defendant if he was under the influence and could not recall during the hearing whether Defendant told him that he was still high from the night before or whether Defendant had said he was not clear headed during the interview. Thomas also testified that, in his experience, it can be hard to tell how long it will take a person to become clear-headed or to no longer be under the influence of methamphetamine after using the drug, ranging from no time at all to as much as twelve hours. Agent Thomas testified that, had he suspected that Hernandez was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, he would not have conducted the interview.

Hernandez testified that, prior to Agent Thomas’s arrival in the hotel room, he had smoked methamphetamine ice, snorted cocaine, and consumed a 24-pack of beer. He had been using these drugs for the 30 day period before the day the search was conducted and had not slept as a result. Despite his claimed intoxicated condition, Hernandez was able to purchase the beer, rent the room at the Deerfield Inn, and even move his belongings from one room to another when the motel staff changed his room. Five minutes before he heard the police say, “search warrant, police,” he had used the slider found in the room to smoke methamphetamine ice and “did a couple of lines up [his] nose of cocaine.” [DE 127 at PagelD # 347-49]. Although he recalled the police beating on his door and some parts of what happened after agents entered his room, he testified that he did not recall the agents advising him of his Miranda rights on the night of his arrest nor did he recall the interview on March 13, 2013,. except that agents brought him in and started asking him questions. He believed that he was high and under the influence at the time he was *264 interviewed. Hernandez testified that he did not understand what agents were asking him when they advised him of his Miranda rights because “[he] wasn’t really all there.” [Id. at 338]. During the interview, he told Agent Thomas that he had been doing ice, cocaine, and drinking, but he did not tell Thomas that he did not want to be interviewed because he was high or under the influence. After his arrest and the interview, Hernandez claimed that it took a while for his memory to return.

The March 13, 2013, interview was video recorded, and the recording of Hernandez’s interview was played for the district court. [Id. at 317].

The district court announced its decision in open court, stating,

The 13th, according to Mr. Thomas, and according to the recording here, the videotape, that Mr. Hernandez was advised of his Miranda warnings.

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611 F. App'x 261, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-angel-hernandez-ca6-2015.