United States v. Pacheco

884 F.3d 1031
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedMarch 7, 2018
Docket16-3294
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 884 F.3d 1031 (United States v. Pacheco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth 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. Pacheco, 884 F.3d 1031 (10th Cir. 2018).

Opinion

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

In 2013, Defendant Joseph Pacheco was indicted on one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine in violation of 21 U.S.C. § 841 (a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B)(viii), one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 924 (c)(1)(A)(i), and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 922 (g)(1) and 924(a)(2). At trial, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts, and Pacheco was sentenced to a within-guidelines term of 355 months in prison.

On appeal, Pacheco challenges several elements of his conviction and sentence. With regard to his conviction, he first argues the district court erred in denying his motion to suppress evidence gleaned from a cell phone recovered by officers at the scene of his arrest because the device was originally seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment. In the alternative, he maintains the evidence from the cell phone should have been suppressed because the warrant ultimately authorizing officers to search the phone was authorized in Kansas but executed at a computer lab in Missouri. Finally, Pacheco contends the district court abused its discretion by denying his request for a jury instruction on the lesser-included charge of simple possession.

As for his sentence, Pacheco argues the district court further abused its discretion in how it defined the amount and type of methamphetamine with which Pacheco was charged for sentencing purposes. Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and 18 U.S.C. § 3742 (a), we AFFIRM the district court.

I. BACKGROUND

A. The Arrest

On February 4, 2014, while responding to reports of a simple disturbance between two vehicles, Officer Jacob Dent of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department ("KCKPD") pursued one of the vehicles through Kansas City, Kansas, only calling off the chase when the car entered a neighboring jurisdiction. After returning to headquarters, Officer Dent determined that the car was driven by the Defendant, Joseph Pacheco, and that the Kansas Department of Corrections ("KDOC") had issued a warrant for his arrest pursuant to an outstanding parole violation.

The next day Officer Dent went to the address listed on the car's registration, 3101 South 39th Street, intending to arrest Pacheco for violating the terms of his release. Upon his arrival, Dent saw the car parked in the driveway, approached the back door of the residence, knocked, and *1036 peered through the door's double glass window, observing Mr. Pacheco sitting at a computer desk. At this point Pacheco "looked straight at" Officer Dent for ten to fifteen seconds, ignored Dent's requests for Pacheco to come to the door, slowly scooted his chair back from the desk, and disappeared from view. R. Vol. II at 31.

Having determined that Pacheco was unlikely to surrender, Officer Dent retreated to his squad car and called for backup. He was joined shortly thereafter by three other members of the KCKPD and Vic Harshbarger, an officer with the KDOC. After loudly commanding anyone in the house to come out with their hands up, the officers decided to make entry. Just prior to the officers forcing their way into the residence, three men walked out the back door and surrendered to the officers. These men were later identified as John Carter, Jason Crump, and Walter Flaugher.

In response to the officers' questions about whether anyone else was in the house, one of the men responded that "he's in the residence, he has a gun, and ... he said he will not go back to prison." Id. at 44 . Having seen Pacheco earlier through the window Officer Dent presumed Pacheco was still in the home, although the comments did not identify him by name.

At this point the officers entered the residence and swept the house room by room in search of Pacheco. Upon arriving at the upstairs bedroom the officers noticed a mattress askew from the corresponding frame and box spring, and searched under the bed and between the mattress and the box spring "to be sure that nobody would, one, be hiding in the debris on top of the bed, and then two, wasn't trying to conceal themselves between the box springs and mattress, hiding." Id. at 52 . Looking under the mattress, the officers saw a handgun, a green tube that appeared to contain several individual baggies of narcotics, and a separate baggy that also appeared to contain narcotics.

Leaving these items under the bed, the officers continued to search for Pacheco, eventually entering an unfinished attic space off the main bedroom. Seeing a bulge in the insulation along the walls in this attic, the officers peeled back the insulation and found Pacheco lying between the insulation and the exterior wall. The officers grabbed Pacheco by the arms and picked him off the floor, at which point he dropped a cell phone he had been holding in his hands. The officers then placed Pacheco in handcuffs and escorted him outside the residence and into Officer Dent's waiting patrol car.

B. The Search

Following Pacheco's arrest, the KCKDC narcotics unit sought and obtained a warrant to search the residence for evidence of narcotics activity. The warrant, issued by a Wyandotte County District Court judge, authorized the search of 3101 South 39th Street, Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Kansas for:

• Methamphetamine
• Firearms
• Drug Paraphernalia
• United States currency

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Bluebook (online)
884 F.3d 1031, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-pacheco-ca10-2018.