United States v. David Rosales-Aguilar

818 F.3d 965, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6626, 2016 WL 1425877
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedApril 12, 2016
Docket14-50315
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 818 F.3d 965 (United States v. David Rosales-Aguilar) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth 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. David Rosales-Aguilar, 818 F.3d 965, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6626, 2016 WL 1425877 (9th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

OPINION

KOZINSKI, Circuit Judge:

David Rosales-Aguilar was convicted under 8 U.S.C. § j.326 of two counts of attempted illegal rpentry. • At trial, Rosales did not testify but he snuck in his *968 recollection of events by using an expert witness as a conduit for his own words. The principal issue in this appeal is whether it was proper.to allow the government to impeach the expert with statements that Rosales made voluntarily but that weren’t Miranda compliant.

FACTS

On June 21, 2013, Border Patrol Officer Moreno spotted Rosales in the.pedestrian entry line at San Ysidro, “Disheveled” and “grungy,” Rosales “stood out” from the crowd. Rosales told Moreno that he was going to Chula Vista but didn’t have any entry documents. He also told Moreno that he wasn’t a U.S. citizen. When Moreno asked Rosales how he intended to enter the United States, Rosales replied that he was “just going to walk through and they wouldn’t stop him.” According to Moreno, it’s not unusual for pedestrians to “make a break for it” once they arrive at the front of the line.

Moreno searched Rosales and found a syringe in his pocket but didn’t ask whether Rosales was intoxicated. Rosales was arrested and processed for expedited removal. During this process, Rosales said he left Mexico “[t]o find work and to live in the United States.” Because these statements were not preceded by a Miranda warning, the district court suppressed them but ruled they were voluntary and could therefore be used for impeachment.

Rosales was removed but three days later, on June 24, Border Patrol officers found him in a bush approximately 300 yards north of the border. When arrested, Rosales was high on methamphetamine and heroin.

After conducting a field interview, the agents took Rosales to a nearby station. Before interrogating him, the agents read him his Miranda rights. As they did so, Rosales — who “was, to some degree, under the influence of heroin and methamphetamine” — was mumbling to himself and nodding off. During this interrogation, Rosales admitted that he had been previously removed and didn’t ask the U.S. Attorney General for permission to reenter, that he climbed over the border fence and that he was on his way to San Diego. The district' court suppressed Rosales’s statements after viewing the videotape and finding that the waiver “couldn’t have been [made] knowingly because he was dozing off during part of it.” But, as with statements made during his expedited removal on June- 21, the court found that these statements were made voluntarily.- Thus, the court concluded, “if [Rosales] takes the stand and he denies any of the facts that are set forth in the sworn statement, the government can impeach him with the sworn statement.”

Rosales was charged with attempted reentry by a removed alien in violation of 8 U.S.C. § 1326 based on the June -24 bush incident. This indictment was superseded by adding a second «.count of attempted illegal reentry based on Rosales’s June 21 appearance at the port of entry. Rosales was found guilty on both counts.

■ In calculating the Sentencing Guidelines range, the district court applied a 16-level enháncement upon finding that a 1998 conviction for sale of cocaine base under California Health and Safety Code section 11352(a) — for which Rosales was sentenced to' three' years in prison — qualified as a drug trafficking offense urjder U.S. Sentencing Guidelines " section 2L1.2(b)(1)(A)(i). The court calculated a Guidelines range of 84 to 105 months, but varied the sentence down' to 54 months.

DISCUSSION

Rosales challenges the use of his suppressed statements during the cross-examination of his expert witness. Rosales also appeals the district court’s denial of his *969 motion for judgment of acquittal, denial of his motion to dismiss the June 21 count for vindictive prosecution and rejection of an adverse-inference jury instruction based on the routine destruction of border security videos by the government. Rosales also challenges the district court’s assessment of a drug-trafficking offense enhancement.

I. Impeachment Exception

Before trial, Rosales filed a motion in limine to prevent 'the government from using his' suppressed statements' for purpose's other than impeachment of his testimony at trial. Rosales’s lawyer'explained that he intended to call Dr. Matthew Carroll, a psychiatrist who evaluated Rosales on two occasions, as an expert witness. Dr. Carroll would testify that Rosales told him he had no memory of going to the border or speaking with the agent on June 21, and that Dr. Carroll found this behavior consistent with.an individual who is under rthe influence, of, drugs. The court warned Rosales that if he offered the hearsay statements — which the court deemed admissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 803(4) — the government would likely be able to impeach the declarant with Rosales’s suppressed statements under Federal Rule of Evidence 806.

At trial, Rosales’s theory of the case was that he lacked the specific intent necessary for attempted illegal reentry because he was under the influence of heroin and meth. Defense counsel asked Dr. Carroll to talk about his interview with Rosales. Dr. Carroll testified that Rosales “says' he doesn’t remember anything [that occurred on June 21]. He doesn’t remember going [to the port of entry]. He doesn’t remember talking to anybody. He doesn’t remember it happening at all.” And as to the June 24 incident, Dr. Carroll testified, “[Rosales] has some memory about- that incident. What he remembers is being asleep in the bushes 'and all of a sudden seeing Border Patrol agents, and he does remember talking to them and then going to a hospital after that.” When Dr. Carroll asked Rosales how he got there, Rosales said, “I don’t know; I was just using; I don’t know what happened; I don’t .remember that night at all.” Dr. Carroll also testified that Rosales told him that if the Border Patrol hadn’t found him, he “would have walked back to Mexico.” The court then allowed the government to use Rosales’s suppressed statements in cross-examining-Dr. Carroll. -

“Ever since its inception, the rule excluding evidence seized in' violation of the Fourth Amendment has been recognized'as a principal mode Of discouraging lawless police conduct.. [Without it the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures would be a mere ‘form of words.’ ” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 12, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968) (quoting Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 655, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961)). The Supreme Court, however, “has carved out exceptions to the exclusionary rule ... where the introduction of reliable and probative evidence would significantly further the truthseeking.

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Bluebook (online)
818 F.3d 965, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 6626, 2016 WL 1425877, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-david-rosales-aguilar-ca9-2016.