United States v. Burke

633 F.3d 984, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 2082, 2011 WL 310520
Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided February 2, 2011·No. 10-3030·Published·Cited by 92 cases

Opinion

TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

After police officers discovered firearms and over 1,500 images of pornography— many involving children — at the home of Eric Burke, he pleaded guilty to several child pornography and firearms charges. The district court sentenced him to a 168-month sentence. He now appeals, contending the district court erred in (1) denying his motion to suppress evidence seized at his home because the search warrant and supporting affidavit lacked particularity, and (2) in giving him an excessive sentence in relation to the federal firearm charge. He also claims the government breached the plea agreement, thus making his sentence invalid.

Having jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we AFFIRM Burke’s sentence.

I. Facts

In 2006, Eric Burke’s wife, Michelle, contacted the Leavenworth County Sheriffs Office and spoke to one of the detectives. She advised the detective that several days earlier, she had observed a number of compact discs lying on top of clothing in an overnight bag that belonged to her husband. She explained Burke had been out of town the week before and had left the bag open on the floor in a room on the lower level of her house.

Curious about the CDs, Mrs. Burke inserted them into the computer and discovered they contained images of minor girls engaged in various sexual acts. She also informed the detective her husband was a convicted sex offender and had guns in the home. She indicated she had waited several days before advising authorities about finding the CDs because she was afraid of how her husband would react if he found out. She also advised the police Burke might have kept a lap top computer in his truck.

With this information detectives prepared an affidavit and application for a search warrant. The affidavit said, in relevant part to this appeal, that “Michelle Burke ... told [the detective] that she found child pornography on CD-Roms by the family computer located in her residence.” Supp. R., Vol. 1 at 23. The affidavit did not elaborate on the definition of “child pornography.” The affidavit did explain Mr. Burke copied the CDs off the computer, is a convicted sexual offender, had guns in the house, and had told his wife “he would kill anyone who breaks up his family again.” Id.

Based on the affidavit, a magistrate judge issued a search warrant. Relying on the warrant, officers searched Burke’s home and truck for computer and other media relating to child pornography, as well as firearms. They discovered and seized a loaded .30-30 caliber Winchester rifle, a box of .30-30 ammunition, a .22 caliber Remington rifle, an Essex Arms pistol frame, as well as a great deal of electronic media, including Burke’s computers. A forensics examiner later found on the CD-Roms some 1,155 images of pornography, many of which constituted child pornography. Further, a review of the home computer established it had been used to access possible child pornography websites. Several of the recovered images were identified as known victims at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

*987 After his arrest, and consistent with a written plea agreement with the United States, Burke pleaded guilty to violating 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(4)(B) (Possession of Child Pornography) and 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2) (Felon in Possession of Firearms). As part of that agreement, Burke waived the right to appeal most issues related to his conviction and sentence, except his claim regarding suppression of evidence and the district court’s denial of his motion to dismiss the firearms charge.

The district court sentenced Burke to 168 months in prison and a 5-year term of supervised release. Burke challenged the sentence, claiming (1) the search warrant was too general and thus violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against general searches, and (2) the government breached the plea agreement because the agreement’s factual recitation noted Burke had 155 images of pornography but the government provided the court evidence of 1,155 images at sentencing (contending the 155 number in the plea agreement was merely a typographical error), increasing the length of Burke’s sentence.

Having lost on both arguments below, Burke now appeals, raising several issues.

II. Discussion

Burke raises four issues on appeal, two relating to the suppression of evidence and two relating to the propriety of his sentence.

A. Suppression of Evidence

Burke argues the district court erred in two ways in denying his motion to suppress. First, he contends the detective’s affidavit was inadequate to provide the magistrate with probable cause to issue the search warrant. This argument was not raised in the district court. Second, in an argument he pursued unsuccessfully below, he claims the search warrant was too general and did not sufficiently limit the search of his home to those items showing his use of child pornography. As we explain below, neither has merit.

1. Adequacy of Affidavits

Burke contends the affidavits provided to the magistrate judge lack sufficient detail to support probable cause. For example, he posits that because the affidavit merely says his wife found “child pornography,” instead of providing specific descriptions of the images she saw, it is too general to support probable cause. But none of these arguments was presented to the district court at the suppression hearing, and they are therefore waived on appeal.

Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 12(e) provides, “A party waives any Rule 12(b)(3) defense, objection, or request [which includes motions to suppress evidence] not raised by the deadline the court sets under Rule 12(c) or by any extension the court provides.” We have held under this provision, “When a motion to suppress evidence is raised for the first time on appeal, we must decline review.” United States v. Brooks, 438 F.3d 1231, 1240 (10th Cir.2006); see also United States v. Buchanan, 985 F.2d 1372, 1380 (8th Cir.1993) (holding defendants must raise a motion to suppress before trial or the objection is deemed to be waived).

We have also held “this waiver provision applies not only to the failure to make a pretrial motion, but also to the failure to include a particular argument in the motion.” United States v. Dewitt, 946 F.2d 1497, 1502 (10th Cir.1991); see United States v. Banks, 451 F.3d 721, 727 (10th Cir.2006) (explaining the general rule that if a party fails to raise a specific argument in a suppression hearing they waive that

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United States v. Burke, 633 F.3d 984, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 2082, 2011 WL 310520 (10th Cir. 2011).

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