United States v. Olivo

597 F. App'x 878
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 12, 2015
DocketNo. 14-1140
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 597 F. App'x 878 (United States v. Olivo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh 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. Olivo, 597 F. App'x 878 (7th Cir. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER

Joseph Olivo pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess and distribute marijuana, distributing heroin, using a residence to distribute marijuana, and possessing a firearm as a felon. In his plea agreement Olivo waived his appeal rights with one exception: to challenge an adverse ruling on his motion to suppress evidence seized at his house. Olivo argues that the affidavit underlying a state search warrant did not support a finding of probable cause, and urges that the investigators who executed the warrant could not have believed in good faith that the affidavit established probable cause. We conclude that the affidavit was sufficient and, thus, affirm the judgment.

The Sheriffs Department in Elkhart County, Indiana, was tipped off to Olivo’s involvement in drug trafficking by an informant who had just been caught with marijuana. Deputy Robert Smith stopped the informant for a traffic violation on September 20, 2012. The informant abandoned his car and fled on foot; after he was caught the deputy viewed in plain sight a bag of marijuana in the car, arrested the informant, and placed him in a squad car. When an investigator arrived from the multiagency Interdiction and Covert Enforcement Unit, which is responsible for major drug investigations in the county, the informant volunteered that he had “valuable information” about drug activity.

Captain Shawn Turner, the Unit’s commander, then went to the scene and interviewed the informant. Turner included the following information from this interview in the affidavit he prepared in support of a search warrant for Olivo’s home. The informant explained that he was selling marijuana for a large operation that received its shipments from Texas every couple of months. Before he was pulled over, the informant had been at a house in Rolling Prairie, Indiana, where Olivo (whom the informant calls “O”) was living and storing more than 100 pounds of marijuana. The informant identified Olivo from a picture that another deputy showed him. Olivo, the informant said, kept the [880]*880drugs in a closet and also had money (of which, he said, there was at least $90,000 from a recent payment from another conspirator) in a safe in his bedroom. The informant added that he knew Olivo previously had been arrested for selling methamphetamine and marijuana. The investigators confirmed Olivo’s criminal history. Lastly, the informant provided precise directions to Olivo’s house, which he described in detail. Turner followed those directions and found a house matching the informant’s description. Turner later showed a photo of that house to the informant, who confirmed that it was the one Olivo was using to store marijuana.

Before applying for the search warrant, Captain Turner learned more about the informant’s background. First, Turner contacted a South Bend detective, whom the informant claimed to have helped in the past. The detective confirmed that the informant had supplied reliable and accurate information for past investigations, including one leading to an arrest for possessing a couple pounds of methamphetamine. Second, Turner questioned a different informant — one already known to be reliable — who confirmed that the new informant was selling large amounts of marijuana in Elkhart County, that the drugs came from someone named “O,” and that “O” received the drugs from Texas.

The next day a state-court judge issued a search warrant for the house identified by the informant. In the bedroom the investigators found a drug ledger, a loaded handgun, $2,441 in currency on the floor, and another $2,300 in a nightstand. A safe in the bedroom closet contained $139,870 and 2 pounds of marijuana, and in the basement another 99 pounds-of marijuana were found plus two more handguns.

Olivo initially was charged with conspiring to possess and distribute marijuana, 21 U.S.C. §§ 846, 841(a)(1), possessing marijuana with intent to distribute, id. § 841(a)(1), possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c)(1)(A), and possessing a firearm as a felon, id. § 922(g). After Olivo had notified the prosecutor that he intended to plead guilty but then changed his mind, the government added two more charges based on its continuing investigation: one for distributing heroin, 21 U.S.C. § 841(a)(1), and another for renting a residence for the purpose of distributing marijuana, id. § 856(a)(1).

Olivo then moved to suppress the evidence seized from his house. He argued that the affidavit supporting the warrant did not establish probable cause since, he reasoned, the informant’s statements were neither sufficiently reliable on their own nor adequately corroborated. The district court concluded, however, that the affidavit established probable cause and thus denied Olivo’s motion.

The following month Olivo pleaded guilty to four of the charges — conspiring to possess and distribute marijuana, distributing heroin, maintaining a residence to distribute marijuana, and possessing a firearm as a felon — and in exchange the government dismissed the other two charges. As part of his plea agreement, Olivo waived his right to appeal with an exception allowing him to challenge the district court’s adverse ruling on his motion to suppress. The district court later sentenced Olivo to 292 months’ imprisonment.

On appeal Olivo argues that the affidavit underlying the warrant did not establish probable cause because, he says, the informant did not divulge how he learned the information that he provided, was not shown to be reliable, and was not adequately corroborated. In reviewing a ruling on a motion to suppress evidence, we greatly defer to the probable cause finding [881]*881made by the judge who issued the warrant. United States v. Sutton, 742 F.3d 770, 773 (7th Cir.2014); United States v. Robinson, 724 F.3d 878, 884 (7th Cir.2013). We will affirm so long as the issuing judge had a substantial basis for concluding that the search would detect evidence of criminal activity. See Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 236, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); Sutton, 742 F.3d at 773; United States v. Glover, 755 F.3d 811, 816 (7th Cir.2014); United States v. Farmer, 543 F.3d 363, 377 (7th Cir.2008). And when an informant supplies probable cause, we consider, among other things, (1) the extent of police corroboration, (2) the degree to which the informant acquired the information firsthand, (3) the level of detail provided, and (4) the time lapse between the informant’s observations and the warrant application. United States v. Spears, 673 F.3d 598, 608 (7th Cir.2012); United States v. Hicks, 650 F.3d 1058, 1065 (7th Cir.2011).

Here, the totality of the circumstances reveals an ample basis for finding probable cause.

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Related

United States v. Joseph Olivo
691 F. App'x 826 (Seventh Circuit, 2016)

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Bluebook (online)
597 F. App'x 878, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-olivo-ca7-2015.