United States v. Mayra Reyes

960 F.3d 697
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 5, 2020
Docket19-10291
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 960 F.3d 697 (United States v. Mayra Reyes) 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. Mayra Reyes, 960 F.3d 697 (5th Cir. 2020).

Opinion

Case: 19-10291 Document: 00515443270 Page: 1 Date Filed: 06/05/2020

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit

FILED No. 19-10291 June 5, 2020 Lyle W. Cayce Clerk

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff–Appellee,

versus

MAYRA YURIVIA REYES, also known as Mayra Bautista-Hernandez,

Defendant–Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

Before SMITH, GRAVES, and HO, Circuit Judges. JERRY E. SMITH, Circuit Judge:

Mayra Reyes pleaded guilty of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine (“meth”) in viola- tion of 21 U.S.C. § 846. Her plea agreement reserved the right to appeal her motion to suppress. Because the officer who pulled Reyes over had reasonable suspicion to extend the stop for a canine sniff, and because Reyes was not entitled to Miranda safeguards during the routine traffic stop, we affirm. Case: 19-10291 Document: 00515443270 Page: 2 Date Filed: 06/05/2020

No. 19-10291 I. Officer Will Windham stopped Reyes, approached her car, informed her that she was speeding, and requested her driver’s license and registration. Reyes volunteered that she was trying to get her kids to school. Windham found that odd because there were no passengers. He asked where the kids were, and Reyes responded that they were in Abilene—fifteen miles ahead.

Windham asked Reyes to accompany him to his patrol car while he looked up her information. According to Windham, she was “extremely hesi- tant” to leave the truck. After she refused, he explained that he completes traffic stops in his patrol car for safety purposes—to avoid being hit by passing vehicles and because he doesn’t know what may be inside the driver’s vehicle. Additionally, it was very cold. Windham found Reyes’s persistent reluctance to exit her truck unusual. 1

As she pondered exiting her vehicle, Reyes asked, “What about the truck”? Windham answered that it could stay parked where it was. As Reyes sat down in the passenger seat of the patrol car, she locked her truck. Windham—who had never seen anyone lock his or her vehicle during a traffic stop—suspected that Reyes was trying to hide something illegal.

Windham asked Reyes where she was heading, and she mumbled, “this address,” as she scrolled through her phone to find it. He inquired, “I thought you said you were taking the kids to school.” She responded, “Yeah. Not my kids. My kids [are] in Grand Prairie. I’m helping a friend take her kids to school. She doesn’t have a car or anything.” Confirming that Reyes started her trip in Grand Prairie, Windham asked, in a surprised tone, “What time did

1He testified: “I’ve stopped a lot of cars, and over—get everybody out—usually everybody out of the vehicle, and I’ve never had nobody refuse to come out of the vehicle like the way she did not want to come out.” 2 Case: 19-10291 Document: 00515443270 Page: 3 Date Filed: 06/05/2020

No. 19-10291 you leave?” She replied, “About, what, three hours ago, or so?” Windham, shocked that she purported to travel three hours to take kids to school, “could tell something was not right.”

Windham asked Reyes who owned the truck, which had a temporary Oklahoma tag. She replied that it was her ex-husband’s. Based on his train- ing, education, and experience, Windham surmised that narcotics couriers often use vehicles registered to others to avoid forfeiture.

As Reyes showed Windham the truck’s documents, he asked whether she had ever been arrested. She stated that she had an arrest for DWI. Soon after, and while continuing to examine the truck’s documents, Windham asked whether there was anything illegal in the truck. Reyes’s facial expressions changed dramatically, and her eyes shifted from Windham to the front wind- shield as she shook her head and said, “No, no, no. There shouldn’t be. I mean, it’s brand new. It’s brand new.”

Sounding skeptical, Windham asked again, “So you drove all the way from Dallas, or Grand Prairie, to take these kids to school for this lady?” Reyes then added, “Not just for that. I wanted to see her.” She then explained that she previously had a relationship with the woman in prison and that the woman’s husband “was going to be at work.” Windham told Reyes that she wasn’t going to make it in time to take the kids to school. She then changed her story yet again, claiming that she was going to Abilene “just to see her, to be honest.”

After typing into the computer some more, Windham asked for consent to search the truck. Reyes responded that she could not give consent because it was not her truck. He explained that she could grant consent because she had control of the truck. She refused.

3 Case: 19-10291 Document: 00515443270 Page: 4 Date Filed: 06/05/2020

No. 19-10291 At that point—roughly eight-and-a-half minutes into the stop— Windham informed Reyes that he was going to call a canine unit to perform a free-air sniff. He said that if the dog detected drugs, he would have probable cause to search inside. He requested a canine unit, then told Reyes that he was going to check the truck’s vehicle identification number (“VIN”) to see whether it matched the paperwork, because he was “not getting a good return” on the license plate.

Windham noted that Reyes had several items on her and asked whether she had any weapons. She emptied her pockets, which contained only a wallet and a pack of cigarettes. She asked whether she could have a cigarette, and Windham agreed to let her “stand outside and smoke” while he got the VIN. Reyes got out of the car for about thirty seconds, without smoking. After re- entering the car, she told Windham that she didn’t have her lighter on her. He asked if she had one in the truck, and she responded that she did not know and mumbled that she had “probably dropped it.” Windham found it odd that Reyes declined to retrieve her lighter. He testified that he had never had a smoker turn down his offer to let him or her smoke.

After Windham received Reyes’s criminal background check, he asked her whether she had any other prior arrests. She said that, in addition to the DWI, she had been arrested for warrants related to tickets. Windham prodded further, and Reyes conceded that she had been arrested for a pill that was found in her ex-girlfriend’s vehicle. That story evolved, however, and Reyes admitted that she was arrested for a meth offense. She said that she went to jail for that offense and later explained—her story shifting yet again—that the woman she was going to visit was her girlfriend in prison.

Within a few minutes, a canine unit arrived and conducted the sniff. The

4 Case: 19-10291 Document: 00515443270 Page: 5 Date Filed: 06/05/2020

No. 19-10291 dog alerted officers that there was a controlled substance in the truck. Wind- ham searched inside and found 127.5 grams of meth and a loaded handgun.

A grand jury indicted Reyes on various counts. She moved to suppress evidence from the stop. She contended, first, that Windham did not have rea- sonable suspicion to extend the stop for the canine sniff. And, second, she contended that she was entitled to Miranda warnings when Windham directed her into his patrol car.

After a hearing, the court held that “Windham had a reasonable suspi- cion to extend the traffic stop until a narcotics detection K-9 unit could arrive.” Additionally, the court ruled that Reyes was not in custody for Miranda pur- poses, so her statements were not suppressed.

Reyes pleaded guilty of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of meth in violation of 21 U.S.C.

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Related

United States v. Mayra Reyes
963 F.3d 482 (Fifth Circuit, 2020)

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Bluebook (online)
960 F.3d 697, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-mayra-reyes-ca5-2020.