United States v. Muller Vedrine

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 29, 2022
Docket21-13624
StatusUnpublished

This text of United States v. Muller Vedrine (United States v. Muller Vedrine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh 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. Muller Vedrine, (11th Cir. 2022).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 20-13259 Date Filed: 11/29/2022 Page: 1 of 20

[DO NOT PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 20-13259 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus MULLER VEDRINE,

Defendant-Appellant.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cr-20512-BB-1 ____________________ USCA11 Case: 20-13259 Date Filed: 11/29/2022 Page: 2 of 20

2 Opinion of the Court 20-13259

No. 21-13624 ____________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee, versus MULLER VEDRINE,

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 1:19-cr-20512-BB-1 ____________________

Before BRANCH and LUCK, Circuit Judges, and SANDS,∗ District Judge. PER CURIAM:

∗ Honorable W. Louis Sands, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Georgia, sitting by designation. USCA11 Case: 20-13259 Date Filed: 11/29/2022 Page: 3 of 20

20-13259 Opinion of the Court 3

Muller Vedrine appeals his convictions for five fraud-related crimes. 1 He first argues that the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress because (A) the 14-day delay between his arrest and the issuance of the search warrant for his cell phones was unreasonable; (B) the evidence obtained as a result of the second search warrant executed on his residence should have been excluded as “fruit of the poisonous tree”; and (C) the delay in the government’s review of the data extracted from his cell phone was unreasonable. The government argues that neither delay was unreasonable; and, therefore, the search warrant for Vedrine’s apartment did not rely on illegally obtained evidence. Second, Vedrine argues that the district court erred in ordering restitution under the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act (“MVRA”) to Capital One which did not qualify as a victim. The government responds that we should dismiss the restitution claim because Vedrine did not timely file his notice of appeal from the amended judgment awarding restitution. For the reasons below, we affirm the district court’s denial of Vedrine’s motion to suppress and dismiss his restitution claim as

1 Following a bench trial, the district court convicted Vedrine of two counts of possession of 15 or more unauthorized devices with intent to defraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(3), two counts of aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1), and one count of possession of device- making equipment with intent to defraud in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1029(a)(4). He was sentenced to a total of 84 months’ imprisonment, followed by 3 years’ supervised release. USCA11 Case: 20-13259 Date Filed: 11/29/2022 Page: 4 of 20

4 Opinion of the Court 20-13259

untimely. Finally, because the amended judgment contains a clerical error, we vacate and remand for the limited purpose of correcting the clerical error. 2 I. Background

A. Facts Vedrine was arrested on June 4, 2019, for driving a stolen vehicle. During an inventory search of the vehicle, officers identified seven re-encoded credit cards, 3 two fake IDs with Vedrine’s photo but the personal identifiable information of other individuals, and two Target credit card applications. Officers also seized three cell phones. His request for the return of his phones was denied. On the day of Vedrine’s arrest, the Miami-Dade Police Department contacted Secret Service Special Agent Natalya Kaczmarczyk and informed her of Vedrine’s fraudulent items.

2 Vedrine’s indictment listed counts three and four as aggravated identity theft in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028A(a)(1). The district court’s judgment and amended judgment, however, listed count three as a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1028(a)(1) rather than 1028A(a)(1). 3 Secret Service Special Agent Natalya Kaczmarczyk explained what a re- encoded credit card was during the motion to suppress hearing: “A re-encoded card is a card that, on the front, the card number does not match what is on the magnetic strip. So an individual can use a re-encoded card. It makes it look like you’re using the credit card on the front of the card, but when you actually use it it’s a different card number that you’re using.” USCA11 Case: 20-13259 Date Filed: 11/29/2022 Page: 5 of 20

20-13259 Opinion of the Court 5

Fourteen days after Vedrine’s arrest, Kaczmarczyk obtained a search warrant for the seized cell phones and data extraction was performed. However, after the extraction, the data was not analyzed for 21 days. Before the data was fully analyzed, a second search warrant was executed on Vedrine’s apartment and officers obtained additional incriminating evidence of fraud. A grand jury indicted Vedrine for five fraud-related crimes. Vedrine moved to suppress evidence from the searches of his cell phones and apartment. He advanced three arguments. First, he argued that the 14-day delay between his arrest (June 4) and the issuance of a search warrant for his three cell phones (June 18) was unreasonable in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Second, he argued that the search warrant for his apartment lacked probable cause because it relied on information gained from the unreasonable search of his cell phones. Finally, he argued that the warrant for his phones was executed unreasonably because the data from his cell phones was not analyzed until 21 days after extraction. At the hearing on the motion to suppress, Agent Kaczmarczyk testified on the progression and timing of her investigation. She began by interviewing Vedrine on the day of his arrest and requesting security footage from Target for the credit card applications. She received the Target footage three days later, but a security firewall initially blocked her access. Alongside her investigation into Vedrine, Kaczmarczyk also engaged in investigative duties in other cases that required her attention. USCA11 Case: 20-13259 Date Filed: 11/29/2022 Page: 6 of 20

6 Opinion of the Court 20-13259

Kaczmarczyk submitted a first draft of a search warrant for Vedrine’s three cell phones to the Assistant United States Attorney (“AUSA”) on June 11, 2019. On June 13, 2019, the AUSA sent Kaczmarczyk requested revisions to the search warrant. After revisions and additional investigation, Kaczmarczyk finalized a search warrant that was signed by a magistrate judge on June 18, 2019. The Miami-Dade Police Department released the cell phones to Kaczmarczyk on June 27, 2019, and the data extraction occurred the next day. Twenty-one days later, on July 19, 2019, another agent conducted a forensic examination of the extracted data. The agent completed his final report on August 5, 2019. Kaczmarczyk was pursuing other leads in the case while she waited on the final report from the cell phone extraction. Through her investigation, she discovered an apartment that Vedrine procured by supplying management with fraudulent information, and she obtained a search warrant to search the residence. Kaczmarczyk executed the search warrant on the residence with eight other Secret Service agents and three other individuals on August 1, 2019. At the close of the evidentiary hearing, the district court denied Vedrine’s motion to suppress.

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United States v. Muller Vedrine, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-muller-vedrine-ca11-2022.