United States v. Baker

538 F.3d 324, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 16112, 2008 WL 2907189
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJuly 30, 2008
Docket06-40757
StatusPublished
Cited by153 cases

This text of 538 F.3d 324 (United States v. Baker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth 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. Baker, 538 F.3d 324, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 16112, 2008 WL 2907189 (5th Cir. 2008).

Opinion

OWEN, Circuit Judge:

A jury convicted Samuel Baker of possessing, receiving, and distributing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252 and 2252A. He appeals, arguing that the district court erred by failing to suppress images seized pursuant to a search warrant and by admitting documents and images purportedly provided to law enforcement authorities by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). We vacate his conviction on Count 1, affirm his convictions on Counts 2, 3, and 4, and remand for re-sentencing with regard to a special assessment.

I

Yahoo! Inc. (Yahoo) discovered that someone using an e-mail account named “jmiller4012@yahoo.com” had posted forty-six images of child pornography to a group Web site called the “jokerswilder” that was hosted by Yahoo, but administered by members of the public. The jmil-ler4012 account had been created two days before Yahoo found that this account had been used to upload the child pornography images. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 13032(b)(1), Yahoo reported this incident to the NCMEC, a national clearinghouse for information about children believed missing or sexually exploited. As also required by § 13032(b)(1), the NCMEC reported the matter to appropriate laws enforcement authorities. Detective Lori Rangel of the Dallas Police Department Child Exploitation Unit, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, initiated an investigation.

Rangel ultimately traced the jmiller4012 e-mail address to Baker. She first subpoenaed Yahoo to obtain its records regarding the jmiller4012 account, and Yahoo responded with the account’s details, including the date on which it was created and the Internet Protocol (IP) address used to create it. An IP address is a unique number. Testimony at trial reflected that it can be associated with a computer’s modem, but that for dial-up users like Baker, the IP address is not linked directly to a computer’s modem. A discreet range of IP numbers is assigned to dial-up Internet service providers, and Rangel traced the IP address she was given by Yahoo to Valley Telephone Coop. She then issued a subpoena to Valley Telephone, asking for subscriber information associated with the IP address she received from Yahoo. In response, Valley Telephone provided Baker’s name and residence address. Rangel then referred the case to the Cyber Crimes Unit of the Texas Attorney General’s office, where it was assigned to Sergeant Dave Dodge.

Dodge reviewed the images and determined that he had probable cause to believe that Baker possessed child pornography in violation of section 43.26 of the Texas Penal Code. He prepared and signed an affidavit in support of a search warrant. Based on this affidavit, a magistrate judge issued a warrant to search Baker’s home and to seize all computer hardware, software, and peripherals believed to contain child pornography. Officers executed the warrant the next day and took custody of Baker’s home comput *327 ers and diskettes. In addition, Baker’s employer voluntarily gave the police Baker’s work computer and 134 diskettes from Baker’s office. A forensic analyst recovered hundreds of images of child pornography from these sources.

Baker was subsequently indicted on federal charges based on 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252 and 2252A for (1) distributing in interstate commerce forty-six images of minors engaging in sexual conduct, (2) receiving by means of a computer forty-six images of minors engaging in sexual conduct that had been transported in interstate commerce, (3) receiving by means of a computer more than 600 images of minors engaging in sexual conduct that had been transported in interstate commerce, and (4) possessing more than 600 images of child pornography that had been transported in interstate commerce.

Prior to trial, Baker filed a motion to suppress the evidence seized at his home. The district court held a hearing and denied the motion. A jury ultimately convicted Baker on all four counts. The district court sentenced Baker to 240 months in prison on each count, to be served concurrently; a supervised release term of life; and a special assessment of $100 for each count.

Baker appeals his conviction on several grounds. First, he contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his home. Second, Baker argues that the Government offered an insufficient eviden-tiary foundation for the court to admit two exhibits. Finally, Baker asserts that the district court erred by admitting these exhibits in violation of his Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. We first consider the issues surrounding the search warrant.

II

Baker contends that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because, he asserts, Dodge gave false information or “showed a grossly reckless disregard for the truth” in his affidavit that served as the basis for the warrant obtained to search Baker’s residence and to seize his computer and other items. The affidavit Dodge submitted correctly identified the IP address Yahoo had said was associated with the jmiller4012 account, but the affidavit incorrectly stated that the IP address was the same one from which images of child pornography were uploaded to the jokerswilder Web site. Yahoo did not determine the IP address from which the images were uploaded. It only determined that the IP address at issue was associated with the jmiller4012 account at the time it was created. Baker contends that Dodge’s misstatement was intentional or was made with reckless disregard for the truth.

Baker’s brief in this court does not accurately reflect the procedural posture of this case with regard to this issue. The district court denied Baker’s pretrial motion to suppress. But the argument he presents on appeal regarding the warrant was not raised in that motion or at any other time before, during, or after trial as a basis for suppressing evidence.

Baker’s pretrial motion to suppress challenged the search warrant on several grounds, including the fact that there were blanks in the affidavit that Dodge submitted in support of the warrant. Dodge prepared the affidavit on his office computer, which displayed the jmiller4012 e-mail address in blue. He printed the affidavit using a different computer and printer while he was in another county, just prior to presenting it to the magistrate. The printer left blank spaces in place of printing the items displayed on the computer screen in blue. Notwithstanding the *328 blanks in Dodge’s affidavit, the district court found that the magistrate had a substantial basis for concluding probable cause existed to believe a crime had been committed and evidence of that crime could be found at Baker’s residence.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Federico Saldana
667 F. App'x 522 (Fifth Circuit, 2016)
United States v. Mohamed Dioubate
610 F. App'x 400 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Edgar Lockett, Jr.
601 F. App'x 325 (Fifth Circuit, 2015)
United States v. Erik Willis
584 F. App'x 254 (Fifth Circuit, 2014)
United States v. Jose Escalante-Reyes
689 F.3d 415 (Fifth Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Randall Curry
466 F. App'x 329 (Fifth Circuit, 2012)
United States v. Walker
665 F.3d 212 (First Circuit, 2011)
James v. State
717 S.E.2d 713 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2011)
United States v. Hector Alba
439 F. App'x 291 (Fifth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Ricardo Rodriguez-Trevino
434 F. App'x 419 (Fifth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Eleazar Garcia
432 F. App'x 318 (Fifth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Luis Placencia-Marquez
412 F. App'x 675 (Fifth Circuit, 2011)
United States v. Rosa Trinidad
380 F. App'x 449 (Fifth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Daniel Hernandez
364 F. App'x 135 (Fifth Circuit, 2010)
United States v. Howard
324 F. App'x 437 (Fifth Circuit, 2009)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
538 F.3d 324, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 16112, 2008 WL 2907189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-baker-ca5-2008.